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when other people don't behave in a way we think is right. Sometimes the person we need to forgive is ourselves. Sometimes it is God. God can't do anything wrong, but we are often upset with Him because we don't understand why things happen the way they do.

Forgiveness opens the door to healing. We can't feel God's forgiveness in our hearts until we start to forgive others.

4. Maybe we have absorbed negative emotions from other people. This often happens to children, who don't really understand what is going on when their parents and friends have problems. It is easy to believe that we are to blame for other people's unhappiness. We need to identify all the things that make us feel less than others and hand them over to God.I was born in Germany in 1944. Soon afterward, Germany surrendered unconditionally and the country was occupied and governed by foreign troops. Everyone was hurt, angry, and disappointed. Everyone had lost friends and relatives in the war. There were a lot of people with missing legs and other injuries. A lot of women could not get married because so many of the men were dead. A deep sense of failure was in the air. I was too little to understand any of this. When adults lashed out at me, I thought I was to blame. Even today, I am very defensive and easily hurt. When things don't go the way I hoped they would, I start thinking over and over, "I am a failure." That thought has less power over me now because I know that it is a lie. I can take it to God and he comforts me.

5. Maybe we have come to believe lies about ourselves, about others, the world, or God. We need to ask Jesus to expose those lies, so that we can renounce them and ask Jesus to clean them out of our minds. It helps to say something like this out loud "In the name of Jesus, I renounce this lie! I refuse to let it have power over me any longer!" Then we can think of something that is true and start repeating that to ourselves every time the lie tries to come back. For instance, if the thought is "I am a failure," I can replace it with "God loves me just the way I am." Then I can start thanking God for that love instead of worrying about not being good enough to deserve it.

GOD'S HEALING GIFTS FOR US
We can't hide from our feelings. The best thing we can do for ourselves is to look inside, admit that we're hurting and need help, take time to feel the hurt, talk it out, pray with somebody, and finally release the pain to God.

Emotional healing is a life-long journey, a journey of

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