Christ Will Rescue You

Tuesday, August 18, 2026

When Abuse Gets in the Way of the Life God Intended

The book of Job is one of those places in Scripture where we see just how deeply suffering can affect a person's life. Job lost his children, his wealth, his health, and almost everything that had given his life a sense of security. At one point he said in Job 3:25 (NLT), “What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true.” Imagine living through that much loss and still trying to make sense of your life. When pain keeps coming, it can change the way you think, the way you see yourself, and even what you believe is possible for your future. Abuse can do something very similar. It can get into places that go far beyond what happens in the relationship itself. It can affect your confidence, your peace, your relationships, your decisions, and sometimes even the way you see God. And before long, you can find yourself living around the abuse instead of living the life God intended for you.

Abuse has a way of making your world smaller. You may stop saying what you really think because you already know how it will be received. You may stop doing things you enjoy because they cause an argument. You may begin checking somebody else's mood before you decide what kind of day you're going to have. Little by little, you can become more focused on keeping the peace than living your life. And after a while, you may not even realize how much of yourself you've given up just trying to avoid the next problem. That isn't the life God calls you to live. Jesus said in John 10:10 (NLT), “My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.” Abuse takes. Jesus gives. Abuse controls. Jesus leads. Those are two very different things, and we have to learn to recognize the difference.

After you hear the same hurtful messages long enough, they can start sounding like your own thoughts. Maybe you’ve been told that you’re not good enough, that nobody else would want you, that you can’t make it without him, or that everything is your fault. Those words can get deep. But what somebody says about you does not get to decide who you are. Your identity was never supposed to come from another person’s approval in the first place.

Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” That means the person God created you to be is still there, even if abuse has buried her under years of hurt, fear, and self-doubt. Jesus is not looking at you through the eyes of the person who hurt you. He sees you through the truth of who you are in Him.Top of Form

Getting free from abuse is about more than getting away from the person who hurt you. There is also an inner freedom that has to happen over time. You have to start separating what God says about you from what you have been told about yourself. That can take some work, especially when you've heard the same lies for years. But you don't have to carry somebody else's words as if they are your identity. Romans 12:2 (NLT) tells us to “let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” This is where Jesus meets us in the healing. He begins to rebuild what has been torn down. And He doesn’t do it by pretending the hurt never happened, but by teaching us to see ourselves, our lives, and our future through His truth instead of through the eyes of the person who hurt us.

The life God intended for you may not look exactly like the life you once imagined. Abuse may have changed things you never expected to have to deal with. But it does not get the final word. You can heal. You can learn to trust yourself again. You can make decisions without being afraid of somebody else's reaction. You can laugh again, make plans again, and discover parts of yourself that got buried under the weight of survival. Most of all, you can walk with Jesus through every part of that journey. He is not asking you to pretend it didn't happen. He is inviting you to let Him meet you in the places where it hurt and lead you forward. What happened to you matters, but it does not have to determine the rest of your life. There is still life ahead of you.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

“When Abuse Gets in the Way of the Life God Intended”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2026. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Monday, August 10, 2026

Looking Forward After What You’ve Been Through

Philippians 3:13–14 (NLT)
“13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”

There are some things you go through in life that leave a mark on you. Sometimes it is a relationship that ended badly, a decision you wish you could take back, a season when you felt lost, a disappointment you never saw coming, or simply a period of life that took more out of you than you expected. And if you've lived long enough, you already know that life can teach you some lessons you didn't think you needed to learn. Some of those lessons come through our own choices, and some come through what other people have chosen to do. Either way, when you've been through certain things, you don't always come out thinking the same way you did before.

You may become more cautious. You may question yourself. You may find yourself wondering if you can trust again, love again, hope again, or even believe that something good can happen again. That's where what you've been through can become a problem—not because the experience wasn't real, but because we can allow something that happened in one season to start telling us what we should expect in every season that follows. We have to be careful with that. What happened to you may explain some of what you struggle with today, but through Jesus Christ, it does not have to keep controlling what happens in you tomorrow—it does not have to keep deciding how you live, love, think, and respond.

Paul understood something about moving forward that we sometimes have a hard time accepting. He had a past. He had things in his history that he could have spent the rest of his life thinking about, explaining, regretting, or trying to make up for. But when Paul talked about his life in Philippians, he didn't present himself as a man who had forgotten everything behind him. He presented himself as a man who had made a decision about where he was going. He understood that if he kept reaching backward, he would have difficulty reaching forward. That's a word for us because there is a difference between remembering what happened and continuing to live in it.

You can remember the relationship that hurt you without allowing that relationship to determine whether you will ever trust anybody again. You can remember a mistake without making that mistake your identity. You can acknowledge that somebody mistreated you without spending the rest of your life allowing what they did to shape how you see yourself.

Moving forward doesn't mean you suddenly forget what happened. It means you stop allowing what happened to have the final word over who you are and what you believe is possible for your life. There comes a point when you have to recognize that God can still do something new in you, even after what you've been through. Isaiah 43:18-19 (NLT) reminds us that God is not finished: “But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?”

We can spend so much time mourning the door that closed that we never notice the door God is opening. Sometimes we become so focused on what we lost that we fail to recognize what God is placing before us. A closed door may have disappointed you, but it does not mean God has stopped making a way for you. The Word of God tells us in Revelation 3:8 (NLT), “I know all the things you do, and I have opened a door for you that no one can close.” Your life is not over because something didn't work out. You are not finished because you made mistakes. You are not disqualified because you have a history. You are not too old, too damaged, too disappointed, or too far behind for God to continue working in your life.

You've already lived through yesterday. You don't have to keep living there. Take the wisdom. Take the lessons. Take the growth and give God the hurt that you are still carrying. Repent where you need to repent. Forgive where you need to forgive. Release what you cannot change. And then look forward. Not because you know exactly what is coming, but because you know the God who holds your future. After all you've been through, don't spend the rest of your life looking backward. God is still working. He is still leading. And there is still more ahead of you. Lift your eyes, trust Him with what comes next, and keep looking forward.■

“Looking Forward After What You’ve Been Through”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2026. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Monday, August 3, 2026

Don’t Let Him Pick You Apart!

I bet just about every woman knows the verse in Philippians 4:6(NLT). It tells us, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Look at how lovingly our Heavenly Father gives us a pathway back to peace. He doesn’t leave us guessing. First, He tells us what not to do: don’t worry. Then He tells us exactly what to do: pray, bring our needs before Him, and remember His faithfulness.

Worry has a way of slowly wearing us down. It creeps into our thoughts, steals our confidence, and makes us question what God has already promised. But worry is not who we are. Fear is not our identity. Doubt does not define us. As believers, we are women who have been given faith, strength, and authority through Jesus Christ.

And we have to be careful because the enemy loves to use painful situations to make us turn against ourselves. He wants us to replay every hurt, every mistake, every word spoken against us until we begin to believe the lies. But we can’t let the devil pick us apart. We can’t partner with the very voice that is trying to convince us that we are powerless, broken, or forgotten.

This is especially important for women who have experienced domestic violence and abuse. Many women have spent years hearing words meant to tear them down. They have been criticized, controlled, blamed, and made to feel like they were the problem. Little by little, those wounds can settle deep within the soul if they are not brought before God for healing.

I’ve heard the testimonies of so many women of faith who have walked through some of the darkest seasons imaginable. They have faced abandonment, financial struggles, betrayal, emotional abuse, and physical violence. Some felt like they were being attacked from every direction. Just when they thought one storm was finally passing, another storm appeared. They felt like throwing in the towel, but they didn’t.

One of the common threads in their stories is that they discovered something powerful: anxiety and doubt can steal precious moments that God intended for peace. They spent time worrying about whether God would show up, whether He would make a way, or whether they would be left behind.

His Word reminds us in Isaiah 43:2 (NLT), “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.”

God never abandoned them. He never lost sight of them. He walked with them through the valley and brought them into a place of healing, restoration, and renewed strength. He will do the same for you. Their testimonies remind us that every believer will face moments when their faith is tested. We can know God's promises, and still struggle with fear.

We all know the grips of that sinking feeling. The kind of heaviness that settles so deeply you cannot even explain the depth of it. Your heart feels troubled, your mind feels exhausted, and nothing seems to bring comfort. In those moments, we know God’s healing power. We know His promises. We know He has told us not to worry, yet there are moments when fear still rises within us.

Many women who have experienced abuse know this feeling all too well. After being hurt, controlled, criticized, or made to feel powerless, fear can become a familiar companion. Even when friends, loved ones, and spiritual mentors remind us to give it to Jesus, we may find ourselves surrendering our burdens one moment and picking them back up the next. But this is where God begins His healing work within us. He is not asking us to pretend we were never hurt. He is teaching us that our pain does not have to determine who we become. He is showing us that the things that happened to us do not have the authority to define who we are.

As God’s children, we can learn something powerful by looking at the love we have for our own children. Many of us would do everything within our power to protect our children, provide for them, and help them through difficult seasons. That love did not originate with us. God placed that capacity to love within us because we were created in His image.

And if we, as imperfect parents, know how to love our children, how much greater is the love of our Heavenly Father? God’s love is higher, deeper, and more complete than anything we could ever give. Isaiah 55:8–9 reminds us that His thoughts and ways are higher than ours. He sees what we cannot see. He knows what we do not know. And even when we feel forgotten, He has never lost sight of us.

Fear is one of the enemy’s greatest tools because it tries to convince us that something is true simply because it feels real. Fear says, “You will never recover.” Fear says, “You will always be broken.” Fear says, “God will not come through for you.”

But fear is a liar.

We cannot allow the enemy to continue picking us apart with thoughts that contradict what God has spoken over our lives. Instead, we must learn to bring those thoughts before God and replace them with His truth. Yes, learning to choose faith over fear takes time. Healing takes time. Trust takes time. But God has given us a pathway forward. His Word tells us in Philippians 4:6-8 to remember His goodness, to thank Him for what He has done, and to fix our thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable.

This is how we begin to rebuild what was damaged. This is how we strengthen our faith. This is how we stop allowing fear to have the final word.

The enemy may have tried to pick you apart, but God is in the business of putting you back together.

If someone has spent years trying to convince you that you are not enough, remember this: their words do not have the authority to define you. God’s Word does. You are loved. You are seen. You are valuable. You are a daughter of the King.

Don’t let him pick you apart. Don't let his words determine how you see yourself. Don’t let the pain of what happened to you become stronger than the truth of who God says you are.

Give those broken places to the One who knows how to restore. The same God who carried you through yesterday will strengthen you for today and prepare you for tomorrow. ■