Masks

"Praise the Lord.  I'm blessed.  I'm doing great" - the cliché answers we get or give when asking or being asked how we are doing. I understand the need to be positive. I understand that we are not to live by our feelings. I understand we need to confess what the Word says about us. BUT I also know there are people right in our churches who are broken. They fear saying how they really feel because  that "wouldn't be faith talk." 

 

It is time for the church to become a safe haven; a place where people can reveal in order to heal. Do we camp out on the problem? No. But once we know there is a problem, we can offer the solution. We need to become more sensitive to the inner cries of those around us. We have in us what people need to be free. However, we can't help them if we don't know help is needed. We need to make ourselves available so that God's healing touch can flow through us. 

And remember: Healing is a process. Helping someone who is emotionally broken requires time and a whole lot of patience. Many of us don't want to invest that kind of commitment in the lives of others. We don't like our glass house being disturbed with interruptions and needs of others.  Unfortunately, this leaves us with churches full of people putting on their “church face” and never being real with one another. Is this what “church” is supposed to be all about?

“The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity” Luke 4:18

 

All that’s hidden

 

 Must be revealed

Nothing gets past Your eyes

You know the darkness underneath

You know the inner cries

 

You want to peel the mask away

And erase all of the fakeness

You are not pleased with the lies

You’ve come to expose the weakness

 

You desire that all of Your children

Would have oneness with each other

But these walls are such a hindrance

Of us being real to one another

 

You know everything about us

The reasons we are insecure

Only You have the answer

To release us from this fear

 

It can’t be done in our own strength

The supply comes from only You

Deliver us from this bondage, Lord

Make us a people who walk in truth