Overcoming Heaviness & a Broken Spirit*

 

Overcoming Heaviness & a Broken Spirit from the Reproach of Others

Do you get your feelings hurt by others? Since then, you have always been different? Pulled back, isolating from others? Reproach is going to happen in life by others. No one likes it. Has your confidence been shattered, or is it not the same? How about feeling shamed or angry? Your faith may not be as strong as before. Do you question yourself or God? Maybe you are not as bold as before. All kinds of things can happen that affect your mental health in some way.

There is hope for overcoming heaviness and a broken spirit. We are all going to get hurt or disapproved by others. You can expect it to happen. 

Let's look at reproach in the scriptures. Reproach can affect our psychology and possibly our biology, causing diseases.

Ps. 69:13 - 20 and Ps. 55:12-14

13 But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.

14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.

15 Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

16 Hear me, O Lord; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

17 And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.

18 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.

19 Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.

20 Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

We can become overcomers from others' reproach and overcome their snares from the enemy that floods us with negative thoughts, emotions, and feelings.

Ps. 55:12-14

12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:

13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.

14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

Nothing can hurt humans more than being reproached by others when someone should love you as well. It could be a father, mother, siblings, or even friends. Reproach means not being approved by others. When someone scorns, mocks, or diminishes your value and worth, those words may pierce your heart, and you believe them as truth. That's where we must look to what the Lord says about us. 

According to Psalm 69, the result is that the heart is broken and full of heaviness. Heaviness is a spirit of depression. You feel heavy, sad, and worthless.

Two results from reproach: 

1. Either become thick-skinned, tough, or a survivor to cope. Being tough to keep others out by pushing them away.
2. A person becomes broken, overwhelmed, isolated, or both. 

We must watch how we accept reproach. We cannot take in what others say as truth; it will become our confusing reality - their word vs. God's Word over you. We can become double-minded people who waver between two opinions. Wavering between two opinions only causes confusion. 

When we begin to bend (believing) towards what man said in those reproaches, it removes God the Father, the Lord Jesus, from being the Lord of our lives. When that happens, it opens the door to the enemy's camp and his kingdom to begin to feed us lies and put us into captivity. The evil spirits will bear witness to the people's words about you, leaving you disillusioned with themselves and life. 

Sometimes, the person who went through reproach will pretend it did not hurt, but it does hurt. 

Let me ask you this: 

Can you trace it back to where you believed others' reproach? How do we change a reproach that has happened? 

1. We have to stand and learn how to deal with reproach from others. 
2. We must step back from our situation and reflect on our reality. We must look at the world around us objectively and realize that it does not evolve around us. Every human will face reproach from others. We have to learn how to overcome reproaches from others. It is part of life to expect. 
3. Identify it and be honest with God that it did happen. What are you going to do with it? Jesus said offenses will surely come. Don't go into denial. Be honest and objective. What they said, hurt.
4. The key is not become offended.
   The Word of God says we don't fight flesh and blood. The People will say things about us that are untrue. Maybe accusations. 

Psalm 69 is a prophecy about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. We relate to Him in His suffering. How was Jesus not broken through the reproach of others? How did He stay above it? 

1. Jesus trusted His father's word above anyone else's
2. He let God be true and everyone a liar
3. He forgave others - all of them.

He was on the cross with horrible reproach being thrown at Him while dying. He said, Father, Forgive them, for they know what they are doing.

You have two choices:

1.  Go under it, or 
2. overcome it.
   It may take some time to recover. Show mercy, grace, and love. Practice self-care. We can overcome since we have the truth in God's Word, in who we are in Christ. 

The New Testament instructs us to endure reproaches. 1 Tim. 4:10 For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those who believe.

We must endure suffering and persevere because He trusts in the Living God. 

The first step of healing is the following:

1.  Forgiving others who have reproached you, and you will come out of being broken by reproach. 
   Don't try to figure out why they did it. Get your analytical mind out of the way. The enemy's work cannot be figured out, and it is a waste of time. We are commanded to forgive. Forgiveness will heal you much faster.
   
   The world is full of sin and offenses. We must give people a second chance. Yes, sometimes boundaries are needed, especially when trust is broken. Say, Father, I forgive them. Dust off your shoes and go back to your Father and say I am ready for you to help me recover from the heaviness and brokenness that came in from the reproach of others. He will work with you, according to his word, to heal and restore you. he can heal the brokenhearted and the fragmentation of the mind or any other issue that may have come as a reproach from others. 
   
   
2. Trust in the Lord's Word over your life, and don't allow other people's words to define who you are. Not man. 
   
   You can stop the enemy from bringing a spirit of heaviness onto you to break your spirit by working through it. It does not have to keep you down. 
   
   
3. We must learn to get our approval from God and not from people. It is good to affirm each other. We get our honor from God. He will affirm us and approves of us. So, seek Him out to heal your heart. 

Reproach from others, intentionally or unintentionally. None of us are perfect as humans. That is what Jesus did for us. We are only sometimes going to be all right with each other. We have to forgive each other and put Him as the only one who is perfect and consistent. 

In Isaiah 50:4, The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

5 The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.

6 I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

7 For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

Confounded means confused and double-mindedness. We struggle with ourselves wavering. When you get confounded, do you look within yourself and figure out why that person reproached you? Do you try to reason it out? Or do you run to God for help, comfort, and support?

8 He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? let us stand together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me.

9 Behold, the Lord God will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.

We have to set our face like flint and not be ashamed. You will go up and down, but we must keep going in the faith that God is there to help you. Then, you will not be ashamed. 

When someone condemns you, the lord is your strength to forgive others. 

Isaiah 51:7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

Do not fear men's reproach. Do not avoid people who do you wrong. You have a way out, not a fallout under the heaviness of reproach.  

8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?

11 Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;

13 And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?

1. You will have oppressors. The reality is God's thoughts of you are forever and ever. Man's words are not eternal, nor are they true. The Word of the Lord is everlasting to everlasting. 
2. Put our faith in the Lord, our hope in Him, and even our entire confidence in him since it will never go away, which is the Word of God, rather than the temporary mishaps of words and actions in what mankind has done to us. Man is not your God. 
3. Don't let any human being separate you from God or from yourself. Don't allow anyone to keep you in heaviness or bitterness or down for weeks, months, or years. 

He can restore our souls. As the Bible says, Blessed are those pure in heart, for they shall see God one day. 

Traci Morin, speaker, minister, anxiety coach, teacher of deliverance, Who's Who of America
Touch of God International Ministries - a Christian Healing and Deliverance Ministry - Setting the Captives Free from demonic curses

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