Are you healing from hurt in your life? This 5-day plan will give you gentle yet empowering truth to encourage your heart, strengthen your soul, and help you keep moving forward. Holley Gerth
Day 1
Scripture: Jeremiah 17:14
God Will Complete His Healing Work in You
Perhaps today you feel in a hurry to heal. Shouldn’t things be better by now? It’s an understandable question, especially when the place you’re in is hard and uncomfortable.You are not behind. You are not late. You are not delayed. You’re not failing because your faith isn’t strong enough. You aren’t doing anything wrong that it’s taking so long; God’s timelines are just different than ours.We live in a “get it done now” world of microwaves and fast food, of express check-outs and instant streaming. But the natural speed of our souls is slow. Healing is not an event, it’s a process. Break the egg, split open the cocoon, dig up the seed and you destroy the beautiful, strong things being made. Let your soul do its work and be worked upon by the great Creator. Try not to tell it to hurry up like you would a dawdling toddler. It’s not being lazy or weak, it’s simply wiser than the grown-up part of you that says the best time for everything is now.Healing, perhaps above all things, is about surrender. Letting go of the way you thought things would be. Loosening your grip on your plans. Laying down your expectations. You can’t control the pace of your healing any more than you can control the rising and setting of the sun, the rhythm of the waves, the changing of the seasons. It is beyond you. It is bigger than you.Trust the Master and Maker of all life, the only one who knows the right moment for everything. He will not delay your healing, but He will not rush it either. You are where you are supposed to be on your journey of healing today. Embracing that can be frustrating, maddening, grief-inducing. It’s okay to resist this reality by yelling in your car, crying into your pillow, being fully human. But it can also be a relief to remember healing is your journey, not your job—it’s okay to trust the process.You’re loved in this moment. You’re getting stronger day by day. No matter how it feels right now, it’s not always going to be this way.
Day 2
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1-3
There Is a Season for Everything, Even Healing
Do you ever feel like you’re not doing enough as you try to heal? I’ve been there too. Here’s what recently changed my perspective.I’m sitting cross-legged on the floor like a kindergartener, talking to Jesus and telling him how overwhelmed I feel. Inside words reverberate through me… Bigger. Better. More.In other seasons, words like these might have felt motivating. But in this one, they feel like a weight that I don’t have the strength to carry. But isn’t this what is expected of me?Then these words come to my heart, “This isn’t a season for growth. This is a season for healing.”I inwardly feel the weight drop from my shoulders and soul. Yes, that’s exactly it. Some seasons are for expanding, climbing, doing more. Other seasons are for turning inward, recovering, being made whole again.If you are in a season of healing rather than a season of growth today, that is okay. It’s more than okay, it’s beautiful and necessary.Without healing, we won’t be ready for what’s next. Without healing, we’ll limp when we could be soaring. Without healing, what we’re called to do isn’t sustainable for a lifetime.If we need to heal, it doesn’t mean we’ve failed—it means we are humans living in a fallen world. Things happen. Hearts break. Relationships falter. Mistakes get made. Battles are fought. Needing healing is nothing to be ashamed of, instead it’s a tender invitation from the heart of one who loves us enough to not let us live in pain.There will be other seasons. There will be growth again. For now, slow down and settle in. Let the healing begin.
Day 3
Scripture: Matthew 11:28
It’s Okay If You Need Rest as You’re Healing
To need rest as you’re healing isn’t weakness, it’s proof you’ve offered your all. If you’re tired today, that’s okay. Being tired means you’ve worked hard, given much, loved deep. In the moments when you need rest, welcome yourself with gentleness the way you would a warrior returning from battle. Put an invisible hand on your shoulder, tell yourself, “Well done, that wasn’t easy.” Offer yourself a cup of water, a place to sit down for a moment. Ask yourself what you need.You only require rest when you’ve worked hard in some way. Maybe it was with your heart, doing the work of loving or healing. It might have been with your head, doing the work of creating or solving. Perhaps it was with your hands, serving or supporting. Or it could be all three that took your energy.It’s easy to say, “I should be able to do more” or “I should be able to keep going.” But rest is a rhythm we all need. Work hard, rest, repeat. Having limitations is not a sin; it’s a reality of being human.You serve a Savior who took a nap on a boat, who sat down by a well because He was weary, who retreated to quiet places to pray. God wrapped in skin rested. God creating the world in the beginning rested. To rest is not to fail, it is to follow the example of the One whose image you’re created in.Rest doesn’t begin by stopping what you’re doing; it begins by daring to believe what’s true. Take a deep breath then say to your soul, “I am already loved. I am already enough. I have nothing to prove.” Then, dear warrior, let yourself rest today.
Day 4
Scripture: Isaiah 43:1-2
You’re Not Going to Be Taken Down By This
You’re going through a hard season where you’ve been hurt by life or someone you love. Some mornings you may struggle just to get out of bed, do the next thing, keep pushing forward. Sometimes it seems like it would be easier to give up. But you keep pressing in, pressing on, refusing to surrender to the discouragement or fear.You didn’t choose this and you don’t deserve it. But we live in a shattered world where things (and people) are not as they were meant to be. Hear the whisper of this to your heart today, “Not everything that happens is your fault or responsibility.”You may keep going back over the details asking, “How could I have made this turn out differently?” But the reality is that sometimes things happen that we can’t control. Sometimes people make choices we never saw coming. Sometimes the gap between what we hoped for and the reality we find ourselves in is as vast as the Grand Canyon.You did not break this and you cannot fix it. You can only surrender to what is and choose how you show up in each moment. You can remember you are loved. You can believe you are worthy of a better tomorrow. You can whisper, “Jesus, help” as often as needed.
You may feel down some days but you are not going to be taken down by this. One morning at a time, you are already rising.
Day 5
Scripture: Philippians 1:6
It Is Enough Today for You to Be a Human Who Is Healing
Healing is hard work. It takes sweat and tears, grit and perseverance, energy and emotion. It is not an easy choice, not a convenient one. It’s easier to numb, avoid, blame, withdraw, harden your soul into stone.So if you are choosing to heal, then honor the bravery and strength of that work. It is good work, deep work, necessary work. It is work that will happen in you and then will eventually happen through you.As you heal, you will love better than before, serve in new ways, show up in the world as a force to be reckoned with because you are more whole and holy. Nothing you are doing (or not doing) now will be wasted.Give grace to your capacity in this season. You are not weak; you and God are laboring together in invisible ways. The dishes may be undone, the tasks not checked off, the goals delayed, the bed unmade—and that is okay.It is enough today for you to simply be a human who is healing.
