Healing Through Your Hurt

By Jessica Gordon

Healing Through Your Hurt is a 40 day inspirational devotional of prayers, personal testimonies, and scriptures inspired by Jessica Gordon’s healing process through marriage, divorce, and relationships with family and friends. The devotional is to encourage anyone who thinks they're alone and in any type of painful situation, and how to overcome their hurt while remaining a servant of God. Healing Through Your Hurt reminds people that God has a purpose for everyone and to trust God in any situation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Oct 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781665505277

Book preview

© 2020 Jessica Gordon. All rights reserved.

Website: www.jessicagordon.com

Twitter: @jessica_rgordon

Instagram: Jessica.rgordon7

Facebook: @jessicagordon7

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  01/06/2021

ISBN: 978-1-6655-0528-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-0526-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-0527-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020920979

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in

this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views

expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible,

English Standard Version® (ESV®). Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a

division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

I dedicate this book to all men and women who are hurting, trying to heal,

but unsure of how to begin. It is my prayer that you will come to understand

that God knows your hurt. He knows about the pain you’re experiencing.

Please join me as you understand God’s heart for you. "… fear not, for I am

with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will

help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand" (Isa. 41:10 ESV).

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1   Recognize Your Hurt

Chapter 2   Live In Reality

Chapter 3   Don’t Be Bitter, Be Better

Chapter 4   Redirect

Chapter 5   Refocus

Chapter 6   It’s Time to Heal

Chapter 7   Walk In Faith

Afterword

Notes

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to thank God for helping me put this book together and helping me realize my gift. I could’ve never done this without having faith in you and believing in myself. Thank you for showing me something I never saw in myself. To my daughters, Deja Calloway and Alexis Gordon, I just want to say thank you for loving and supporting me through all life journeys. Both of you are my #1 fans.

I would also like to thank my parents, Jeff Willis and Clester Willis. Thank you for encouraging me to go above and beyond my full potential and making me the person I am today. Thank you Towanda Banks for truly being my best friend for over 20 years and supporting me, pushing me pass my limits.

To editors, Heather Browning and Christina Jones, thank you guys so much for your patience, putting up with me and all the late-night emails and texts. Thank you, Shuanteya Sherman, for my wonderful book cover. God blessed you with a wonderful gift.

To my pastor, Philip L. Pointer, and St. Mark Baptist Church family for loving and supporting me and my girls. Your sermons and teachings helped me through this journey. To all my family and friends who believe in me, thank you.

INTRODUCTION

Greetings to all, I come to you in the name of my Father, Jesus Christ. I’ve been writing this book for most of my adult life without knowing that it was my assignment. I finally heard God say that it was time to share my story. This book is a healing devotional full of encouraging words, prayers, and testimonies. I designed it for you to heal through your hurt.

Many people are hurting. It could be past hurt and present hurt, even expecting hurt. Growing up, my community taught me not to share anything with other people, especially my feelings. I grew up always hearing that whatever happens in the house, stays in the house. I felt like I didn’t have a voice. I felt like I had no one to talk to who would understand me and not judge me. But I didn’t have a strong relationship with God or a prayer life, which carried over into my adult life. I experienced hurt, disappointment, anger, bitterness, non-forgiveness, abandonment issues, rejection, and sexual abuse. I went through it all. No one knew about it because I felt as if no one heard me.

I tried counseling several times, and it helped for a little while. I thought being in a relationship would ease the pain. But the pain was still there. I thought my two beautiful girls would fill some of the missing pieces. But something was still missing. I tried fasting, praying, and studying the word, but the enemy had so much power over me. My way of fixing my issues usually lasted about a week and then I end up in the same mess. I was sad, depressed, and angry at any and everything. I couldn’t sleep! That’s when God said, Write everything you’re experiencing. So I kept journals.

One day, the voice of God said, You need to write a book about healing. You have it all on paper. You just need to put it all in a book to help someone else. I tucked away that voice. Days, weeks, months, and years went by. Before I knew it, four years went by. I was still in the same mess and writing all of my pain in a journal. Finally, I cried out to God, and I didn’t care who heard me or who was around me. I realized I was being heard. Duh, it was God. At first, it wasn’t my plan to write a book. My journal was an outlet for my personal use- a journal to help with prayers and strengthening my relationship with God. I designed it to help me heal. God assured me I was not alone in this.

I’m not the only one suffering and hurting. I thought, if God is helping me through this, he can surely help others. Be it man, woman, child, single parent, professionals, or students, you name it, he can help! Yes, God told me I would find my healing through this process, but he didn’t tell me the specific details of how to go through this process. God removed everything and everybody bad away from me. I removed anything that distracted or hindered me from my assignment. I didn’t realize the healing was going to be so painful, but it was worth it. There were times I stopped writing because God was revealing things about myself to me. I didn’t like my reflection. It wasn’t pretty.

God showed me things about myself that I didn’t like, and things other people didn’t like, either. There were times he wouldn’t let me write at all. I would just sit still, pray, and cry out to him. God blocked all the resources I thought I needed because he wanted me to trust and depend on him. All I could say during my healing process is, Let thy will be done. The hardest thing about healing was waking up and confronting the enemy every day. The enemy knows that you’re trying to change your life, to align yourself with God’s will. The key to healing is waking up with determination. To face and overcome your fears, you must have God on your side.

Yes, it will be hard. But you have to let God lead you. Make sure you put on your battle gear because Satan is ready. Just remember, God already won the battle for you at the cross. Now pick up your cross and carry it. You can, my sister. You can, my brother. You’re not alone. I am healing with you. We are all in this together. God said we can, we will, and shall overcome. Stay encouraged, don’t give up, and keep the faith.

You’ll fall, but God will give you the strength to get up again. Knowing that God loved me so much helped me through my healing process. I owe him the promise that I will never give up because he never gave up on me. So let’s walk through the healing process together, trusting God to guide and lead us. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Ps. 23 ESV).

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CHAPTER 1

Recognize Your Hurt

Before you can heal, recognize that you’re hurting and that you need to heal. In this chapter, we will discuss fear, sin, pride, honesty, being naïve/gullible, and abandonment and loneliness. God wants to heal you. He carried our pain on the cross. Let him heal your broken heart and bind your pain. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds (Ps. 147:3 ESV).

Day 1

Fear

Fear is an unpleasant, often powerful emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger¹. We can express fear in different ways. Fear can also make you blame everyone but the person(s) that is responsible for the pain. Sometimes fear paralyzes you and can be detrimental to your health. Fear is isolating. Fear keeps you from hearing God’s voice and from hearing others’ voices. Fear destroys your faith with God and weakens your prayer life.

What are you afraid of? I am glad you asked that question. It’s human nature to be afraid of the unknown. We’re used to being in the same situations and doing the same things. We become used to our daily routines. Whenever there is any interference in our routines, we panic. When we are afraid to heal, we’re afraid to face parts of ourselves we try to hide deep within, hoping the hidden parts will go away, never bothering us again. We hide