Part 1: When Becoming a New Creation Isn’t the End of the Healing Journey
Written by Mariana Guice,
a member of the MPC Community Education team and also a peer advocate
Lately, I have been reflecting on trauma and the authority we have in Christ to experience true healing. As believers, we celebrate the promise found in Scripture that we are a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). But what happens when we embrace that truth while quietly leaving our deepest wounds untouched? What happens when we believe we are made new, yet avoid inviting Jesus into the places that still carry pain?
Before I go any further, I want to make something clear. I wholeheartedly believe in the power of Jesus Christ to heal, deliver, restore, and transform. I believe His blood is sufficient for every wound, every chain, and every broken place. I believe the Holy Spirit is still bringing freedom to captives today. Yet I've begun asking myself a difficult question:
When is what we call "healing" actually avoidance?
For many years, I unknowingly answered that question by saying, "That happened twenty years ago. I'm a new creation now. That isn't who I am anymore." While there is truth in that statement, I eventually realized I was using biblical truth to protect myself from biblical transformation. Instead of allowing Christ to gently uncover old wounds, I was covering them with spiritual language, especially in places where I felt my choices led me to.
God, because He is faithful, has been showing me that becoming a new creation does not erase my need to surrender every hidden part of my heart to Him. Healing is not pretending the wound never existed. Healing is allowing the Great Physician to touch the places we've spent years trying to keep hidden.
Recently my prayer has simply been, "Lord, make me a woman after Your own heart." Now I just laugh because that prayer has brought me into places I didn't realize I had locked away. He hasn't condemned me. He has been revealing what my heart has been protecting for years. I lived apart from Christ for thirty-five years before surrendering my life to Him. Even after walking with the Lord for over a decade, I find myself asking why I still believe my ways of coping are sometimes better than His ways of healing. The answer, I think, is that trauma often teaches us that survival is safer than surrender.
Only recently have I begun to truly believe that I am safe in the presence of God. That safety has become the foundation for healing. It is in that place of trust that the Holy Spirit performs the delicate surgery my soul has needed all along. God's healing is never rushed, never forceful, and never rooted in shame. He restores with compassion, patience, and perfect love.