From Struggles to Strength: Embracing Divine Healing

Have you ever found yourself stuck in the past, unable to move forward? In this episode, we explore the transformative journey from pain to joy, guided by the story of a man healed by Peter and John in Acts chapter three. Just as he chose to embrace his newfound life with gratitude and vigor, we challenge you to let go of lingering hurts and discover the wonders God has in store for you now. Tune in to hear personal stories and practical insights that will inspire you to leave "hurting street" behind and thrive on "Hallelujah Boulevard."

Our host shares a heartfelt and honest account of their own struggles with forgiveness, revealing the liberating process of letting go of past grievances. We discuss the steps you can take to find strength amidst adversity and the importance of allowing yourself to heal. Whether your wounds are fresh or long-standing, this episode offers a compassionate roadmap to help you rise above your challenges. Join us for an inspirational conversation that encourages you to run, jump, and praise God all the days of your life.

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Transcript

W. Austin Gardner: 0:01

Well, I have a question for you. Would you still be sitting there In Acts, chapter three and verse eight, and he, leaping up, stood, walked and entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping and praising God. I love that verse. Man had been crippled for a long time. He got healed, he got over it and he went forward with his life. The lame man was lying at the temple door asking for financial assistance. Peter and John had no silver or gold, so they offered him something better. He could be healed. God healed the man immediately. Now I have a question for you. Do you think that man went home and sat in his usual place? Do you think he spent much time whining and complaining about his lost years all the time he suffered? Or do you think that his family said sit down, we're about to eat, and to their surprise, he wanted to eat standing up? Is it possible that his family might've gotten tired of him inviting them to go jogging or hiking? They might've said sit down and rest and he might've said I sat down long enough, I laid around long enough. I will run, jump and praise God all the time I have left. If you look at this man on the shores of Galilee. You need to look for footprints, not butt prints. He had sat long enough.

W. Austin Gardner: 1:28

I asked the questions to get you to consider how you will spend the rest of your life. Are you going to spend it nursing your hurts from the past or swimming in the wonders God gives you now? Will you live in the past or enjoy the present? You undoubtedly have been hurt, but don't know how to live there. You don't have to live there. This book calls on you to move from your hurting street to Hallelujah Boulevard. I'm not questioning if you've been hurt. I'm just saying that thinking about your hurt will not help you. Now I want to give you a plan to find the strength to rise above all that happened to you, to hurt and the adversity. Come with me and enjoy what God has for you now. Adversity is like the period of the rain cold, comfortless and unfriendly to man and to animal. Yet from that season have their birth the flower, the fruit, the date, the rose and the pomegranate, according to Sir Walter Scott.

W. Austin Gardner: 2:25

I'll say all that to you to say this I started a study of forgiveness not to teach you how to forgive, because I needed to forgive. I nursed my hurt too much. I held on to everything that happened and I magnified it. I began to only see things from my perspective and where I lived and what I was doing and what I was going through. And so God had to take me on a journey to move from my hurting to saying hallelujah, from being buffeted to knowing I was being blessed, to knowing I was being blessed.

W. Austin Gardner: 3:11

I spent a long time worried about who I was and what I was going through and not thinking about I was forgiven and I should forgive. I had preached it many a time. I preached it with the forgiven forgive, but I wasn't forgiving. I was holding on to what happened to me. I was nursing my hurt. I was almost enjoying the pain that it might cause for others.

W. Austin Gardner: 3:36

So I say all that to say to you that lame man, when he got up, I don't think he thought much about where he had been. I think he let the past be the past and he moved on. I'm not saying that about anything you've been through, because I understand your hurt and your pain and the abuse that you've suffered is far worse than anything I could ever imagine. But I am speaking for me how I let the hurt and the pain and the mistreatment, tie me down, bind me up and work me over. And I am so happy that the Lord's been working through my heart. And I'll be honest with you Every time I've thought I have really forgiven and moved on, the Holy Spirit has had a way to come back and say no, you're not, you're still holding on to things and you're still not doing what's right.

W. Austin Gardner: 4:23

So I have to continually be saying, okay, lord, I want to forgive and I want to be like you want me to be. So I challenge you in this little bit five minute message to think about this If Jesus forgave us and we forgive and we get rid of this burden and we throw away the grudges and we throw away the hurt, if I can do that, can I not enjoy a life like I have never imagined before? So I want to challenge you with it. I want you to think about it, I want you to meditate on it. I want you to say you know I'm not talking about anybody else, I'm definitely not talking about anybody else. I'm talking about Austin Gardner. Now Austin Gardner let this hurt come to him and hurt him deeply and hold on to it, and that only hurt me worse. So I want to stop it, I want to move on. I want to be like that man that got up and walked away, leaping and praising the Lord, and I want to move forward in that way.