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.■

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.

“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.

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.  ■

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.

“Don’t Let Him Pick You Apart!”, 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.

Your Storm Is Not the End of the Story

Talk to almost any believer who has been walking with Jesus for a while, and they will tell you the same thing: after some of the hardest seasons of their lives, they witnessed some of the greatest moves of God. That doesn't mean the storm was easy. And it doesn't mean they understood what God was doing while they were in the middle of it. When you're walking through deep pain, you are usually not thinking about promotion or what God might do next. You're trying to survive. You're praying for the pressure to lift. You're wondering how much more you can take.

Some storms hit so hard that it feels like everything is unraveling at once. Just when you think things can't get any worse, another situation appears. The phone call comes. The diagnosis comes. The relationship falls apart. The door closes. That's life in a broken world. But here's what we have to settle in our hearts: God does not send evil into our lives, and nothing touches our lives that He cannot use to accomplish His good purposes. Romans 8:28 (NLT) reminds us, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

Joseph understood this better than most. His own brothers betrayed him, sold him into slavery, and allowed him to be carried away from everything familiar. Then, after serving faithfully, he was falsely accused and thrown into prison. If anyone had a reason to believe his life was over, Joseph did. Yet years later, when he stood face-to-face with the same brothers who caused him so much pain, he was able to say, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.” (Genesis 50:20, NLT)

Joseph never denied the pain of what had happened. Betrayal is still betrayal, and evil is still evil. But somewhere along the journey, he began to see that God had never stopped working. The actions of others did not have the final say over his life. God did. And the same is true for us. We may not understand everything God is doing while we're walking through it, but we can trust that His purposes are never defeated by the choices of other people. The enemy can attack our circumstances, but he cannot overthrow the purposes of God. He can bring a storm, but he cannot change what God has in store.

One of the greatest things that a storm reveals is where we have placed our trust. When everything around us is stable, it is easy to believe we are standing strong. But when life begins to shake, we discover whether our foundation is truly built on God or on the things we thought would always be there. Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-25 (NLT), “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won't collapse because it is built on bedrock.”

Notice that Jesus didn’t say the rain wouldn’t come. He did not say the floodwaters would stay away. He said the house would stand because of what it was built on. Storms are not always a sign that something is wrong. Sometimes storms reveal that God is building something stronger in us than we could have built on our own.

So what do we do when we are in the middle of the storm and we cannot see what God is doing? We do what every believer before us has had to learn to do—we trust Him. Trust does not mean we understand every detail. Trust does not mean we never cry, never struggle, or never ask God questions. Trust means that even when we cannot trace His hand, we believe His heart. We believe that God is good, that He is faithful, and that He is working even when we cannot see the evidence yet.

The enemy wants us to measure God’s love by our circumstances. He wants us to believe that if life is difficult, God must be distant. But that is a lie. God has never promised His children a life without storms. What He promised is that we would never face them alone. Isaiah 43:2 (NLT) reminds us, “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.” Notice the promise is not that we will avoid deep waters. The promise is that God will be with us in them.

So don't allow your storm to convince you that God has forgotten you. Don't allow the pain of what you are facing to make you doubt the One who has carried you this far. The same God who was with Joseph in the pit, the prison, and the palace is the same God who is with you today. He is still working. He is still faithful. He is still writing your story.

Your storm is not the end because God always has the final word. What the enemy sends to destroy you, God can use to strengthen you. What was meant to take you out can become the very thing that draws you closer to Him. Keep trusting. Keep standing. Keep believing. The storm may be a chapter, but it is far from the end of the story. ■

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.

“Your Storm Is Not the End of the Story”, 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.