Unhooked! 🪝

I was recently listening to a teaching where a hook was used as a metaphor to describe how traumatic experiences can hinder our spiritual and emotional healing. Regret, shame and rejection were literal hooks for me. Back in elementary school, my hair got stuck on a hook in my locker because I had it tied back in a tight ponytail. I quickly reached in to grab my lunch and got snagged. Everyone, including the teacher, mocked and laughed instead of offering a helping hand. I may have gotten my hair loose, closed the locker and walked away from that humiliating day but that hook was still attached to my head! Memories can be like that; we lock traumatic ones in the recesses of our minds thinking they’re safely hidden away. Not so. Those memories are still hanging on hooks and we can get ourselves snagged if we’re not paying attention.

Friends, I want to help you get those memories off those hooks and remove them for good!

We need to clean out our lockers before advancing to the next season. If we don’t unhook ourselves from our past traumas and we allow toxic emotions to fester within our souls, we will always react emotionally when a similar situation triggers that memory. Regressed emotions will only hinder our relationships and stifle our spiritual growth. It’s time to let go and let God!

So I ask, what are you allowing to have lordship over your life? The definition of lordship is to have supreme power or rule. If we allow our past failures to define us, we will fall into a kind of pride that keeps us focusing on ourselves. It’s bad enough to walk in pride when you think you’re something, but it’s even worse to stay focused on thinking you’re nothing — both are forms of pride.

For example, if you carry around immense regret for past failures (moral, spiritual and emotional) and have contempt and unforgiveness towards yourself, you can transfer those negative emotions over to others that make the same mistakes. Instead of responding with wise counsel and reproof, you react in rage and bitterness.

So, how do you remove your hooks so you can respond and not react? By allowing Jesus to unhook you!

Scripture is replete with the Father’s promises for freedom from emotional and spiritual captivity. Instead of putting it in my own words, let me use His:

“I hear the groaning of the prisoners; I will set free those in Darkness. I will open blind eyes, bring out prisoners from the dungeon and those who dwell in Darkness from the prison. For I will break your yoke from off your neck and will tear off your bonds; and strangers will no longer make you their slaves. You will know that I AM the Lord when I have broken the bars of your yoke and have delivered you from the hand of those who enslaved you. So now, I will break your yoke bar from upon you, and I will tear off your shackles. Yes, I AM breaking the yoke of your burden and the staff on your shoulders, and the rod of your oppressor. I will become to you as One who lifts the yoke from your jaw, and I will bend down and feed you. I will make a home for the lonely; I will lead out the prisoners into prosperity. I will execute justice to the oppressed; give food to the hungry and set the prisoners free. So come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. For I where I AM, there is freedom, and it is for freedom that I have come to set you free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. For whom the Sons sets free, is free indeed!”

(Psalm 102:20, Isaiah 42:7, Jeremiah 30:8, Ezekiel 34:27, Nahum 1:13, Isaiah 9:4, Hosea 11:4, Psalm 68:6, Psalm 146:7, Matthew 11:28-30, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Galatians 5:1, John 8:36)