The last few weeks that I have been in England I have been reading scripture and praying about several different things in my life... Last week I came upon a scripture that really puzzled me. It has had me reading and researching like crazy. I'm still not sure I know the fullness of this verse so bare with me. Isaiah 30:26 (NASB) reads; "The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the Lord binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted." Now.. call me silly but the part that caught my eye was... let's see if you caught it................... read it again......................................
Ok... now did you catch it?? "... heals the bruise HE HAS INFLICTED."???????? God inflicts bruises on us???? Ok.. so I realize this is Old Testament.. but when I got to thinking about it.. it actually clicked for me... here's some of the things I found out along the way...
Looking up the words "bruise" and inflicted" in the Strong's Concordance they have the following definitions:
Bruise: severe wound or contusion
Inflicted: wound, stripe, defeat, plague
Looking up these words in the dictionary led me here:
Bruise: injure by striking, or pressing without breaking the skin
injure or hurt slightly
to injure the surface by collision
Inflicted: to impose something that must be suffered
to impose anything unwelcome
to deal or deliver as a blow
Now, all that having been said... it seemed to make more sense. Of course then when I actually prayed about it.. I could think of several things that I have been thru that I see now were bruises. (Things I needed to experience.) Bruises that I'm sure God inflicted to get my attention, after all, isn't that what happens when our skin bruises. We've all been bruised, I think we can all think of a time we've run in to something, dropped something, whatever the case may be. When it hits us or we run into it we think, man I'm not gonna do that again, or I think I'll remember that's there next time. And, as always we have a nice bump along with a splendid array of colors to display. Now, doing some further reading on bruising I was again intrigued.
Let me break this down as well.
~ When we get a bruise it is usually marked, as I said, by a bump or colored marking of some sort. The skin is NOT broken. (God doesn't actually HARM us)
~ When the "infliction" occurs it usually turns red right away which is caused by the hemoglobin rich red blood cells which carry oxygen that go straight to the point of impact. (God's there all along, just as our body provides oxygen and blood cells immediately, He's right there with the answers and supplies we need whether we're hurt or not.)
~ After awhile the hemoglobin levels lower and the point of impact changes color (God takes a step back)
~ Again after more time the levels even out and the point of impact changes a few more colors again till you can't see it anymore. (God makes sure we SEE what He's teaching, so there might be some "color" and He leaves us a little "tender" to the touch at times so we can remember but eventually He steps away.)
Now, if you ask someone who knows first aid about bruises, they will tell you the proper technique is called R.I.C.E. It stands for Rest Ice Compression, and Elevation. These are the areas that I have not done so well on when I consider areas of my life where God has probably "inflicted" some bruising.
Rest: Rest in Him, He "bruises" us, and teaches us lessons for a reason.
Ice: Physically speaking the ice is to take away the swelling if there is any, spiritually I would equate this to equipping ourselves with the Word of God regarding the situation. Seeing what God has to say about the matter.
Compression: Again physically this is another act to take down pain and swelling. Spiritually I would equate this to taking the situation to members of the Body, having several people lift you up in prayer if you are going thru something physically, spiritually, or otherwise. Where two or three are gathered right? That to me is COMPRESSION!!
Elevation: This is the part I think where physically its self explanatory. Spiritually I think this has to do with giving the situation, whatever it might be, to God. Handing it to Him and making the decision to learn from whatever you can, but not let it consume you.
I have found there is one situation in my life that as I prayed the other day, God said to me, "This is your bruise" but just as sure as I knew what He was talking about, I knew I had not "treated" it properly. I knew that all I had done was complain about it. "Ugh, look at this dumb bruise" (Funny enough my "bruise" is actually something physical and health related.) I knew that I had to give it to God, I had to start praying about it more, I had to quit complaining about it and pointing it out to everyone... so.. I'm trying to trust, I'm trying to learn. I'm not sure if this will make much sense to those of you reading, it's not one of my best analogies, but sometimes when you have a "light bulb" moment, you just have to share it!!!
