When my boyfriend raped me one afternoon during my junior year of high school, I was in deep shock for hours.
But that night in my dark bedroom when I began to thaw--fear flooded my mind.
What if I became pregnant? What if he gave me a venereal disease? What if anyone at school found out? What if my parents found out? It was overwhelming.
I cried out to God in prayer begging him to fix this. Could He undo it somehow? It seemed like a childish thing to ask--but I didn't see how I could keep going with this new assault to my being.
God heard me.
He didn't magically remove the rape, but He communicated to my heart that He was with me. He flooded my soul with awareness that He would never desert me or betray me.
I have spoken to other abuse victims who have received the same exact message.
God understands our needs. Jesus Christ was beaten and betrayed during His time on earth as fully God and fully human. He experienced abuse then--and He has experienced your abuse right when it was happening to you. He never abandons you. Immanuel (one of the Biblical references to Jesus that means "God with us") truly is with us. He knows by name the fearful, the oppressed, the brokenhearted, the violated, and the betrayed. He comforts us with His presence in the ugliest moments of our life.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for naming your son "God with us." Thank you for being with us in the most horrendous hours we have endured. Help us to fully receive your presence and your comfort so that we may comfort others as well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Labels
- Abuse recovery (13)
- Action for Domestic Violence Issues (6)
- Anger (4)
- Author Interview (4)
- Boundaries (15)
- Coping (16)
- Damage from Abuse (24)
- Devotional (5)
- Domestic Violence (44)
- Domestic Violence Awareness Month (8)
- Doormat Thinking (17)
- Emotional Abuse (16)
- Emotional Healing (43)
- Forgiveness (6)
- God's Healing (39)
- God's presence (28)
- Good Friday (1)
- Healing Abuse (27)
- Healing Process (57)
- Healing tools (32)
- Helping Children (16)
- Hyper-vigilance (3)
- Immanuel (1)
- Incest (7)
- Journaling (5)
- New Life (30)
- Perpetrators (10)
- Physical Abuse (10)
- Poetry (22)
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (6)
- Powerless (8)
- Rape (6)
- Recovery (43)
- Response to abuse (38)
- Restoration (16)
- Satanic Ritual Abuse (2)
- Self-care (26)
- Self-Esteem (11)
- Sexual abuse (12)
- Shame (19)
- Trust (9)
- Verbal Abuse (9)
- Warning Signs (17)
Recommended Books
- 10 Lifesaving Principles for Women in Difficult Marriages by Karla Downing
- A Way of Hope by Leslie J. Barner
- Angry Men and the Women Who Love Them by Paul Hegstrom
- Battered But Not Broken by Patricia Riddle Gaddis
- Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend
- Bradshaw on the Family by John Bradshaw
- Caring Enough to Forgive/Not Forgive by David Augsburger
- Codependent No More by Melody Beattie
- Healing the Wounded Heart by Dr. Dan B. Allendar
- Keeping the Faith: Questions and Answers for the Abused Woman by Marie M. Fortune
- Perfect Daughters by Robert J. Ackerman, Ph.D.
- Recovery: A Guide for Adult Children of Alcoholics by Herbert L. Gravitz and Julie D. Bowden
- Safe People by Dr Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend
- Slay Your Own Dragons by Nancy Good
- The Cinderella Syndrome by Lee Ezell
- The Dance of Anger by Harriet Goldhor Lerner, Ph.D.
- The Search for Significance by Robert S. McGee
- Turning Fear to Hope by Holly Wagner Green
- When Violence Comes Home: Help for Victims of Spouse Abuse by Tim Jackson and Jeff Olson
- Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft
No comments:
Post a Comment