If you were to get lost in the woods, the best thing to do is retrace your steps. You may need to simply find where you went off track so you can regain your footing and sense of direction. The same is true in your heart healing journey. You need to first realize that you’ve lost your way, while retracing your steps back to the solid path.
To use the words of Jesus, we need to “repent and go back to the first works.” In order to live a more healed and free life from the heart, we need to direct our hearts to the right path. This will involve turning around, going back and retracing some steps that need to be addressed.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works… Revelation 2:5a
That’s what repentance is. Don’t be confused by images of people groveling in never ending tears and unproductive penance. Real repentance involves a change of thinking into a new direction.
God is giving our hearts a chance to go back and carve out a new direction as we engage the heart healing journey.
When Jesus made this statement of “repent and do the first works,” He was not addressing unbelieving pagans. Nor was it given to brand new Christians. He gave this heart awakening charge to a well-seasoned, “leading the way” kind of church who had in fact, lost their way.
This should never be a word to condemn, but for strengthening the footings of God’s work in your heart; to realign you with His priorities. For many, heart healing has been neglected all throughout life, so going back to the foundation may involve facing some broken perspectives, patterns of thinking and beliefs that need God’s transformational work.
Addressing the Foundation
When I engaged a heart healing renovation with God, it became clear to me that He was rebooting my spiritual life. I feel like I started my whole Christian walk over, so I could go back and experience the richness of what I often skipped over or missed completely.
In one hundred percent of the work I’ve done helping others navigate battles of the mind, habits they can’t break or relationship challenges, there was always a foundational issue that had been neglected. It may be a pastor who has some deep addictions he can’t seem to overcome. Maybe a dad is struggling with pornography or a mom is so emotionally worn out, she is numb. It could be a business leader who cannot shake the never-ending emptiness inside or a believer who has been battling depression and anxiety that doesn’t stop.
In the midst of our struggles is a call to return to the issues that were skipped over or neglected for some time. When we lose track, we lose sight of the simple, basic foundations that are meant to uphold us. We forget the everythings.
Where Did Things Get Off Track
Ask yourself a simple question. “Where did things get off track?”
Sometimes it helps to look back and see where things got off track and invite God into those places. It doesn’t need to be complicated. No need for years of introspection. Sometimes it just requires humility, teachability and an authentic request for God’s help.
I had a long season of breakdown that manifested in chronic anxiety, panic attacks and obsessive thinking. These battles revealed my need for reconstruction. I was a hot mess inside, but I neglected the inner work I needed for a while. It was only when I surrendered and humbled my heart, that I was able to hear God say, Go back to the foundations. They are everything.
Many precepts needed to be revisited, while other revelations needed to be formed in my life for the first time. I lost my way through losing sight of valuable truths, or because I never possessed them to begin with. Even though I grew up in church, there were many heart related subjects I simply never experienced.
Get Back to What is Important
Like many believers, I was faking my way through knowing the love of God and living secure in my identity. I never knew God’s love for me as my Father. I had no clue who I was apart from all the busy religious activities I was involved in. Rejection issues lay deep within my broken heart. Yet I hid my self-hatred and insecurities like a professional. So, in reality, I was a performer, going through the motions with the impression that I possessed the things of God, when in reality, that was the furthest from the truth.
Because of this, we often need a “rock bottom” experience for us to awaken to our need for heart healing. The pain increasing or a crisis intensifies to arrest our attention to matters of the heart that have been neglected.
We all need help. Despite the mass of Christians on social media who act like they have arrived, there is no one who has completely mastered the “everythings.” Anyone who comes across that way is self-deceived.
To the authentic believer, the everythings of the heart are always the headline subject. Each stage of life is meant to experience a new facet of the love and grace of God. This is meant to develop our identity, so that the world is impacted, not by our superior knowledge or impressive intellect, but by how deeply rooted we are as sons and daughters of God.
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