Exposing A Secret Life of Pain

2 Peter 2:7-10(NLT)
"7 But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him 8 Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day.  9 So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. 10 He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority."

Many of us wake up every day and go about our daily business not realizing that some of the people we work with or whose paths we’ve crossed are in emotional distress. From the bank teller to the person we walked past in the grocery store aisle, some of them have experienced or is currently dealing with emotional or physical abuse. You can’t tell from their faces that they are hiding this secret, and some of them have even learned to mask it with a smile, but the pain can feel so heavy. As an abused person, all you want to do is to be loved and have peace, but the person you love isn’t loving you in a healthy way. They are forcing you to keep a secret that’s hurting you, and this is betraying your higher good.

Not too long ago, people didn’t believe that Christians endured things like domestic violence and abuse, but this isn’t the case. Many Christians find themselves in situations of abuse, and if they’ve not taken the time to grow in their relationship with God, they might think this is what Heavenly Father wants. So, they succumb to the pressures of life, and this keeps them living beneath their privilege. They want to be loved, and because their faith isn’t developed in the Lord Jesus Christ, they are not always strong enough to walk away from mistreatment.

I’ve heard many believers talk about how much they regret the situations they’ve endured because they didn’t know the Word enough to trust completely in God. My heart goes out to them in prayer, because I understand the emotional trauma that some of them have faced. When our weak places take center stage, it can sometimes get the best of us. Some of us even become bitter and angry, because we think God left us to go through our toughest season alone. 

God doesn’t want anyone to suffer. Our God is a loving Father. Hebrews 13:5(NLT) tells us, “Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” Money is very helpful to our daily lives, but some people depend totally on it for their wholeness and happiness. This is what is means to love money. It’s when we depend on money to such a degree that we place a greater trust in that piece of paper than we do in our Creator. This is a monumental mistake. Our Heavenly Father warns us not to do this, because it’s harmful to our relationship with Him. Heavenly Father shows us that money fades away. It’s in your hand one day and out of it the next. He never fades away. He’s with us always and He will never forsake us. He’s telling us to recognize who He is! He is the One True Eternal God, and we must lean on Him completely. He is our Father and Source of all blessings. Everything belongs to Him, and He tells us in Proverbs 3:5 to trust in Him with all our hearts.

For many of us, money isn’t the draw, but a relationship or person is. Instead of trusting in God, many of us place all our trust and love in the person we’re involved with. We forget or ignore that God is our Everything. We are so dependent and consumed with what the person we love is doing or not doing that we spend very little of our time praying and talking to God. We don’t study His Word as we should, and our relationship with Him gets placed on the backburner. So, God doesn’t ever abandon us, but we abandon Him when we are not faithful to honor our relationship with Him the way He requires.

In 2Corinthians 12:9(NLT), God told the Apostle Paul, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” Paul was going through an incredibly difficult time, and he thought God wanted him to endure this pain and to struggle through life, but this isn’t what Heavenly Father wants for any of us. He has given us victory through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and He wants us to have a more than abundant life. God gave Paul a strategy for success. He taught him and teaches us in 2Corinthians 12:9 that we shouldn’t see the problem bigger than the solution. God is the answer to all our problems. There isn’t anything He can’t solve when we trust in Him. 

When we’re living a secret life of abuse, and we don’t want anyone to know that we’re being mistreated, we’re living a life of pain. We become so acclimated to it that some of us don’t remember what life was like before the abuse started. God doesn’t want us hiding away like that. He loves us too much, and His love is powerful! It’s the kind that shines brilliant and bright. It will illuminate a path out of hiding and help us get beyond the pain and trauma of abuse. Heavenly Father is our Rescuer, and He doesn’t want His kids to suffer, be depressed, sad, or without love. Let Him help you live a life free of pain. Come into His glorious light, and He will expose your pain and heal it, so that you never allow anyone to force you into hiding again. ■

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.

“Exposing A Secret Life of Pain”, 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.