Healing isn’t Linear: Why We Need to Stop Rushing the Process

Healing isn’t linear. I used to think it was. That once I forgave, once I surrendered it in prayer, once I journaled and had the breakthrough, I’d be done. Healed. What I’ve come to find is that’s not how it works, not emotionally, not spiritually, not even physically. Healing comes in waves, in layers. It shows up unexpectedly and often asks us to revisit things we thought we were finished with.

There are moments when everything feels fine and then something happens that reopens what you thought had scarred over. Maybe it’s a conversation. A smell. A familiar silence. And suddenly, you’re back in the thick of it, wondering why you’re crying over something you laid at the feet of Jesus months (or even years) ago. 

God’s timing doesn’t move on our clock, and while we’d love for healing to be neat and quick, it rarely is. The story God is writing in us includes valleys and pauses. Not to punish us, but to shape us. To form something deeper. Something that lasts. What feels like delay is often divine pacing. What feels like waiting is often Him gently unraveling the knots that took years to form. We’re not being overlooked.

We’re being seen by God who knows that rushing healing leads to shallow roots.

We live in a world that praises strength, speed, and getting over things quickly, but God isn’t asking us to get over it. He’s inviting us to go through it with Him. That takes courage. It takes trust. It takes surrender. Surrender isn’t weakness. It’s the soil where healing actually begins to grow. When we stop trying to control how fast or how polished we appear and let God meet us in the mess, that’s where the breakthrough happens. That’s where the layers peel back and the balm of His presence sinks in.

So if you’re finding that you’re still healing, still working through that thing you thought you were past, you’re not broken. You’re being rebuilt. Gently. Faithfully. Purposefully. Let the process unfold. Let God take His time. Because when He does, what He builds in you won’t just be healed, it will be whole.

You’re not behind. You’re transforming.

We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at, the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Christian Standard Bible (2 Co 3:18). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.

Take Care,