ON VULNERABILITY

I don’t quite remember where I heard this from but the saying “God cannot heal what you hide,” has always been a compass for me. Hiding in this sense means not allowing yourself to be fully seen and known.

I like to define Vulnerability as a state of exposure. The word vulnerability is derived from a Latin word ‘vulnus’ which means wound. Wounds are visible, sometimes transparent and it’s almost impossible to hide an open wound. But the great part about open wounds is that when taken to a doctor, they know just by looking at it how to treat it. Internal wounds are harder to treat. There’s a need for X-rays and different tests.
I saw a story on facebook about a man who fell down the stairs. He didn’t have any open or visible wounds. So he and his family believed he was okay and never bothered to go to the hospital. Unfortunately he died in his sleep 2 months after the accident. Autopsy results showed that he had an internal bleed.
During a time when I was struggling with depression, I was so upset with God, my family and friends for not seeing that I was struggling. For not helping me out of it. Eventually I started to self harm as a coping trick. Now I had open wounds and I could only wear clothes with sleeves. But October in Zambia gets really hot and covering the wounds in that heat was getting them infected. I could not keep it up. Eventually I had to leave them in the open and allow them to be seen. I felt shame, guilt – I was exposed. But now that I was out in the open, now that I was vulnerable reluctantly) they could see and they could help.
In all that time what I learnt was that God was always there with me. But the thing about God is that he is a gentle man. He wants our heart, he wants to heal and take care of us but we have to allow him first. We have to be vulnerable before him. We must open up our hearts and allow him to do the work.
In times of trial, I hope you are comforted by Isaiah 54:17 – The weapons will form against us but God has promised us that they will not prosper. Even in times when they feel like they are pretty close to prospering, be vulnerable before God and allow him to work on your behalf.
I’d love to share a step by step guide on how vulnerability before God should look like practically so keep reading 🙂

Establish what areas you struggle opening up to God about.

For me this was my mental health. I was in church every Sunday, praying for literally everything except this one area of my life. God is a God over all and he desires to have full access to his children. Because I was not vulnerable about my mental health, even though I prayed tirelessly about my education, that area was struggling too. If possible, write down every area you feel like
you have been vulnerable in and then write down those areas you though were not important enough to commit to God or those that you believed you could take care of on your own. I love that there is Grace available to start over and the Holy Spirit to help us!

2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT “Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.”


Practice Vulnerability.

Like I mentioned earlier, I was upset with the people around me for not seeing and helping me through my struggles even though they had no idea what was going on with me. I never told anyone. But when my physical wounds were exposed I was helped. I thought God didn’t want to heal me but I did not give him access to what I wanted him to heal. Vulnerability helps us build and sustain a relationship with God and in turn with people. It sets us up to help and be of help to others because if you’re open, people tend to be open with you as well. We were made for
connection and community. God can meet our needs through people as well and Vulnerability puts us in a position to receive not only from God but from his people as well.

James 5:16 NLT “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”


Prayer works, try it!
There’s really no other way of putting it. The only way to communicate with God is through prayer. It’s an opportunity to speak to him and to listen. God is the only one you can talk to with the assurance that no one else will ever hear about something. God can be trusted with your deepest darkest thoughts and the great part is that he can rebuke and correct you too in prayer. For a long time I didn’t know how to approach God in prayer. Truthfully, there’s still times I just can’t bring myself to pray. But the Holy Spirit is our ever present help and when we can’t pray, he teaches us and intercedes for us.
Romans 8:26-27 NLT “And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.”

Scroll to Top