Shame and Abandonment Are Not Yours to Own

“Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.” Isaiah 61:7(NIV)

It is devastating when you’ve known a person for a few years, and suddenly, they reveal a side of themselves that you never imagined. This happens in many abusive relationships. Dating the person can be a very exciting time, and marrying them can be even more blissful, but it’s also possible to wake up one day, and all this has faded away. You have no idea how or why. The person you love may have become an unpredictable nightmare, and you just want your life to get back to where it was.

Our situation can feel very dire, and sometimes we grasp for solutions out of a sense of desperation. I personally know someone who tried unsuccessfully to help her husband become acquainted with the person of Jesus Christ. Feeling this was the only way he’d stop his violent behavior, she did all that she could to persuade him to let the Lord’s love into his heart, but he wasn’t interested in changing and resented the pressure. Eventually, her husband abandoned the family, leaving her to raise their three children on her own.

Abuse can rob us in many ways, and the residual is sometimes a tangled web of emotions that add to the confusion and shame we may be already experiencing. Emotional and mental healing should be our goal for ourselves, because this is what our Heavenly Father wants for us. Jesus Christ gave his life on the cross. He died for our sins so that the sins of everyone could be forgiven. We should remind ourselves every day of what Christ accomplished on the cross. It was a horrible and painful death, and his body was beaten to an unimaginable degree. 1Peter 2:24(NIV) says, “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” Our healing is possible because of the tremendous wounds our Lord and Savior endured. It is up to you and me to trust that through Christ we can be healed, and not only this, we can be better and become stronger.

In Romans 12:1, our Heavenly Father lovingly begs us to present our entire beings to Him. He wants us to give over our whole selves to His care so that He can transform us into the people He created us to be. Our God is all powerful and all knowing. He is magnificent beyond magnificence, and Jesus Christ told us in Matthew 19:26 (KJV), “with God all things are possible.” Even in the middle of fear, heartache, financial struggles, and abandonment, we must rise ourselves to a point of believing that God has a good plan for us, because He does, but we must begin to trust Him wholeheartedly.

Our emotional and mental healing begins with focusing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Giving ourselves to him totally and completely means surrendering those parts of us that need his healing the most. The Lord loves us, and He is faithful to keep His promises. He will guide us through His Spirit and again, the most important thing for any of us to do is to lean on Him and begin to put His Word into our minds and hearts. God’s healing takes time, but we must know that pain doesn’t last always. As quickly as seasons change, so can our circumstances. Nothing ever stays the same, and we must be willing to make some changes as well.

We can’t allow ourselves to remain stuck in guilt, shame, or feelings that come with abandonment. And we must not let resentment and bitterness take up space in our hearts. These feelings bring us low because they belong to the devil, they don’t belong to us. We can send them back to where they came from, and we can claim the victory and liberty that Jesus Christ has given us. You belong to the Kingdom of God! Your inheritance as a child of God is not shame or fear, it is the glory and victory of Christ! If you trust the Lord with all your heart, He will do for you the same as He did for the people living in Isaiah 61:7, He will heal your heart and give you a double portion of blessings. ■

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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.

“Shame and Abandonment Are Not Yours to Own”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2021. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.