In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Hebrews 12:4 NIV)

This is the scripture that the Lord gave me before a long, intense road that the Lord and I traveled together as the Lord began to heal the wounds of my past.

It happened one morning as I awoke; I opened up my Bible to this particular scripture verse in Hebrews. I read it, and re-read it. The words jumped off the page at me. I knew the Lord was trying to tell me something, but I had no idea what it was. I just did not understand this scripture verse. My husband and I had some very precious friends visiting us at the time. The lady was one of my most treasured friends and prayer partner’s. Her and I would stay up until 3 or 4 am holding hands and praying together. And God never failed to show up! These were amazing times! We were living in Germany at the time and she and her husband were visiting us from Italy. I got out of bed and they were already up so I went to her and asked her if she understood this scripture verse. She said no. So we went and asked her husband. He said no. My husband was at work so I could not ask him. So the three of us prayed and we asked the Lord for the interpretation of this verse and what He was trying to speak through it. Then the Lord opened up our understanding and revealed to us the meaning of this scripture verse and how it would apply to me for this particular season in my life that the Lord wanted to take me through.  These are not God’s words verbatim, for I did not write down the words, but I remember the lesson well:

He showed me that along the path of life there are thorns that wound us. Thorns that get into our heart and into our feet. These thorns come from different things and different people that come into our paths. Thorns of rejection, thorns of discouragement, thorns from abuse, thorns from negative words spoken to us, and the list goes on. These thorns pierce our heart and our feet. Affecting our thought process and affecting our walk, affecting our relationship with people and most importantly our relationship with God. They affect our emotional growth, our social growth and our spiritual growth and walk. Many of these thorns are deep, have inflicted much pain, and have been there for years. Some are even covered over so well that even the bearer of the thorns hardly knows they are there. God was showing me that he wanted to remove these thorns so that healing could take place. But in order to do so there would be a shedding of blood that would cause much pain. Think about it…if you had a large thorn in your body that had been there for years and was covered over by skin, to remove it would hurt and cause a shedding of blood, especially the deep ones. Oh, but God understands thorns! For he had a crown of very large and deeply painful thorns pierced into his head. God’s goal, he was showing me, was to remove the thorns and to heal my wounds.  And though there may be some scars afterwards, how awesome that would be! For what is a scar but an opportunity to testify? If a person has a visible scar on his or her body, people will ask how them they got that scar. So these scars, become our testimonies and through these testimonies we can help others, for God’s word teaches in Ecclesiastes 1:9 that there is nothing new under the sun, and 1 Peter 5:9 teaches that our brothers and sisters throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings, and in Joshua 1 he tells us that after we receive our rest, we are to help our brothers and sisters until the Lord gives them rest as he has done for you until they too have taken possession of the land that the Lord has given them.

My Father asked me if I was willing to take this journey with Him. And I said yes. To understand this journey, I must travel back in my past where the thorns first took place. I am not sharing these times to get anyone’s sympathy for surely there are many people out there whose journey has been so much more difficult than mine! To some, mine will seem like a cake walk.  But, I do not believe that anyone out there has lived the most perfect of lives. We all are on this journey and we all have had crosses we had to bear. We all have a testimony that can help someone else. This is just my story, my life, my testimonies. I desire to share so that I can praise the Lord and give Him the glory for all that he has done in me and for me! And to show others that what he did for me was no exception meant only for me. What he did for me, he desires to do for all his children! Every single one of them! Oh, to lay our burdens at the feet of the savior and to walk away in freedom, with hands lifted in total abandonment, dancing, and singing his praises! Oh, to help set my sisters and brothers free so they can sing and dance, too! This is my heart! So I share my past with joy in my heart for the One and only One who has always been there for me, has always loved me, has never rejected me, and has never, ever forsaken me and never will! My Lord, my God, my Savior, my Lover, my Friend, my King, my Everything! Oh, how I love my God!