He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and sorrows; familiar with pain and grief. - Isaiah 53:3
I hate the popular modern expression, “It’s all good.” It’s not all good. Abuse is not good; it’s evil. Child abuse is not good; it’s evil. Sexual child abuse is not good; it’s evil. I’m sure the expression itself, “It’s all good.” Is part of how the end times prophecy of evil looking good and good looking evil has come to be.
The truth about abuse and trauma is that is should produce grief and anger. Who isn’t saddened and angered by the very notion of an abused or neglected child? God wired us to be moved deeply to grief and to justifiable anger over the very thought of it. That’s part of what He made in us to help combat it.
Grief, sadness and anger are part of the natural palette of emotions. What was inflicted against you and me should provoke those emotions. The Word tells us to, “Be angry, but don’t sin.”
Jesus Himself was a man of sorrows; acquainted with grief. He experienced deep sadness because the people He came to save rejected Him and abused Him. His nuclear family, extended family, and home town totally rejected and abandoned Him.
With abuse, neglect, trauma and post-trauma, there will be loss. Many very precious things were lost. Relationships were lost. Opportunities were lost. Physical and emotional capability and capacity was lost. Normalcy was lost.
Acknowledge the losses as specifically as possible. Embrace the pain, cry the tears, and sob the sobs. The denial and looking the other way from our own grief, is part of what locks it in place, to rob us of joy, vitality, freedom, and destiny.
Then, forgive the perpetrators, and walk in to the life God designed for you. Like Joseph said to his brothers who had abused him, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."(Genesis 50:19-20).
Joseph acknowledged what had been perpetrated against him, acknowledged who perpetrated it, acknowledged why it was perpetrated, and forgave. He also acknowledged God Who allowed it, God Who allowed it for for good, God who allowed it for a specific time and circumstance, and God who allows and uses our abuses and traumas for the literal and spiritual salvation of many lives.
PRAYER
Abba Father. Please give me Your Heart for the abused and traumatized. Help me to cry and grieve and get angry when that's appropriate. Please teach me the full range of emotions you designed for me and the wisdom to steward them for my health, the health of those around me, and the Glory of Your Name. Please give me Your mercy and grace to forgive those who have abused and traumatized me. Please heal the emotional, mental, physical, spiritual, and life wounds inflicted upon me. Please help me to use the healing and lessons as a part of your salvation design for those around me; even those who have inflicted abuse upon me. Let it be in and for The Name of Jesus.
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