Could secret hurts you've been carrying for years be the underlying cause of sleeplessness? If so, how can you tell if you're a nighttime victim of submerged pain?

Years ago, prisoners wore loudly striped garments, broadcasting what they were. Likewise, prisoners of hidden hurts today "wear" attitudes that broadcast the fact that they are bound. One of our jobs, as God's ministers, is to know how to read these attitudes - both in ourselves and in others.

One sign of a prisoner, whether in the natural realm or the spiritual, is that he or she is barricaded behind walls. Hurting people are often uncommunicative and withdrawn. Even if the individual is quite extroverted in public, there can be an underlying mistrust of what people will say or do, so walls go up...walls that enclose more wounds. Other signs of hurt people can be ungrateful, stubborn or sulky attitudes; defensiveness; reluctance to help others; blaming others; mood extremes; and restless, erratic sleep. What hope is there for getting these walls down?

Plenty! Remember Jericho! When the children of Israel first came to possess the Promised Land, the first battle they faced involved a formidable wall! But, with God's help, it came down. "And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city" (Joshua 6:20, NKJV).

Heavenly Father, thank you for being One Who can bring down any wall! Heal me of hidden hurts, so that the walls separating me from an intimate relationship with You and with others will come down. I praise You that no wall is too difficult for You! In Jesus' Name, Amen.