You Don’t Need Their Approval To Step Into God’s Healing
Rebecca Simon is an emerging essayist and poet. She is the author of Finding God Every Day: 111 Devotionals For Women Healing Through Faith and Let Go, Trust God.
Pain has a way of convincing you that it belongs to you. When people wound you, when words leave their mark on your heart, when losses you did not deserve bruise your hope—it is easy to internalize that ache as if it is proof of who you are. But what happened to you was not your fault. Yes, it mattered. Yes, it shaped you. Yet still, it was never meant to define you.
Healing is how you reclaim your story. You do not choose to heal because the past was excusable, because it was easy to carry. You choose to heal because you deserve a future that is unchained from that past. To heal is to say: “This hurt me, but it will not name me. This wounded me, but it will not keep me broken.”
God never intended for you to live in the shadow of old wounds. He does not want your identity tied to grief or to shame. His desire for you is freedom. He wants you to experience the kind of peace that allows you to recognize joy when it comes. He wants you to experience the kind of peace that helps you step into blessings when they arrive. He wants you to experience the kind of freedom that encourages you to love again—without fear, without doubt. And that freedom begins when you loosen your grip on the past. That freedom begins when you let Him carry what was never yours to hold.
Forgiveness is a deeply important part of this release—not because it erases what happened, but because it refuses to let pain have the final word. Forgiveness doesn’t excuse the wrong; it protects your spirit from being bound to it. Healing allows you to move forward lighter, softer, and ready for the goodness that is still ahead.
You cannot rewrite what hurt you, but you can refuse to live as if it holds your future in its hands. Healing is not a betrayal of your pain—it is an act of faith that God has more for you in this life than what was taken. Remember, peace is still promised. Heal, so you can finally witness all that is reaching toward you. Heal, so you can finally be free.
Prayer
God, I have carried pain inside of my heart that I never asked for. It has felt heavier than I know how to hold within my hope at times. I don’t want to stay tied to what hurt me. Teach me how to forgive without dismissing. Teach me how to release without forgetting the lesson. Teach me how to trust that you are leading me towards freedom. Thank you for reminding me that healing is not optional. Thank you for reminding me that I am safe to step into it with you. Amen.
Find more prayers by Rebecca Simon here.
