Security In One’s Inner Being
22 Dec 2022
Opening our hearts to the Spirit’s healing
You can defend yourself by shutting out external enemies and ignoring what offends. You can stay in your place of apparent safety as much as possible and remain defensive, reserved, suspicious, and fight if necessary. But the enemy might still get you. Personal security can be outer protection, or it can be inner resilience.
True wisdom
In the latter case it would be wise to have strong inner security enabling you to withstand the knocks and seductions of deceiving and deadly manipulations. Potential harm is ubiquitous. It can come both from outside you, or from inside. It is only possible to fully overcome it with wisdom that comes from God our Creator.
True wisdom involves actually listening to God and acting on what He says, even in the face of what you are told by worldly authority. These days it is particularly necessary not only to be carefully informed and discerning but also to persevere in personally getting right with God through a living relationship with the Holy Spirit so that you are not deceived by your prejudices.
Learned behaviour
Inner security develops from earliest infancy, not only by imitating others who are influential but also through what is learnt from anxieties and troubles. Traumata and mistakes are dealt with in ways that are learned from parents, friends, teachers, preachers, internet informers and many others of this world. But when what is learned is mistaken, inadequate or bad, harmful patterns of thought and behaviour readily develop inside a person and weaken inner security and resilience.
In that case, sound truth will not be found in the inner being (See Psalm 51:6) and mental and physical health might be seriously compromised in consequence. You cannot trust your feelings, either, because what actually feels good or exciting can sometimes be bad. You can only trust God, like David did.
Repentance and forgiveness
Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23). Getting right with God, by accepting Jesus and listening to the Holy Spirit, and allowing God to be at home in us, will drive out deception and bring repentance and healing. Acting on what He shows us may involve facing, undoing, and allowing Him to heal past torments, mistakes, wounds and sins.
True realisation of what has gone wrong in the past, and knowing the pain of it, is a gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:31 and 11:18). It involves waiting for God and listening to the Spirit because He is with you in it all. He comes into the pain and makes your heart tender, abolishes guilt and shame, and lifts you up. It can be emotional. Trauma heals as you open your heart in his presence.
Trauma heals as you open your heart in his presence.
You may need courage to accept God’s verdict rather than a scientific diagnosis or verdict, because the ways that God heals are not commonly known, even in many churches. Healing can be helped by finding godly people who know what you are talking about and who have wisdom that comes from having travelled a road similar to your own.
Forgiveness is essential. You forgive others and God forgives you for having been so misguided. Casting your burdens on the Lord (Ps 55:22, 1 Pet 5:7) can take time. But be assured that Jesus took our sicknesses and pains on the cross and overcame them (Isa 53:4, 1 Pet 2:24).
Fallen human spirit
Because many people live without sufficient godly security in their inner being, their minds are made up of the natural reactions of fallen human nature, which often make us stressed, insecure, worried, anxious, depressed, angry and frightened. Philosophers who are interested in the nature of ‘being’ might call such mental states ‘ontologically insecure’ (from classical Greek ontos = of ‘being,’ or of existence).1 This is a useful concept.
The writer of Psalm 88 was becoming insecure like that until he cried to the Lord for help. The worst abuses that distress people and produce a brokenness in their inner being come from violence, false accusation, deception, and rejection; and they produce confusion and fear in us, and dreadful sins when our fallen human nature causes us to retaliate in kind.
Divided heart or mind
Such abuse can begin in the womb. If it occurs in the earliest years, particularly up to the age of about 7, it affects immature minds that can’t properly understand, which makes it more likely that they may break down later. But taking full hold of Jesus can, in time, heal even this sort of confusion, and all the craziness it can produce.
Insecurity in one’s inner being can reveal itself in anxiety about one’s identity and how to behave.
Insecurity in one’s inner being can reveal itself in anxiety about one’s identity and how to behave. The original meaning of the word ‘schizophrenia’ is ‘divided heart or mind,’ implying deep insecurity in the heart of the soul. The original meaning of the word ‘dysphoria’ is ‘general malaise,’ implying a sort of entropy born of deep confusion. These meanings are sound.
People not anchored in Jesus take on other beliefs which often seem reasonable to them, especially if others they know believe them to be right. People become deluded by deceptive meanings without realising the truth of what is really going on.
Demons can get in this way to create strongholds in the mind; but those in whom Jesus lives can break their hold and drive them out. This sort of understanding enables Christians to empathise sufficiently with disturbing people to introduce them to the Lord for healing, even though those individuals may have been labelled confused, neurotic or psychotic. It does require the fruits of the Spirit, though – especially patience.
He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust (Ps 91:2).
Refuge in the Lord
As earth and heavens are shaken, refuge during frightening storms is best found in the community of true believers in Jesus, who offers eternal security. God tells us we can “say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust” (Ps 91:2).
Endnote
1 The relevance to mental health of the concept of ontological security is well described with references in Chapter 3 of The Divided Self by R. D. Laing. However, he misses the fact that true security in the heart of the soul cannot be found without accepting and knowing Jesus Christ.
John Gordon was formerly a GP, a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst. He is now a licensed minister in The Order of Jacob’s Well.
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Author:
John Gordon