One of the most difficult chapters that I am working on for the memoir is the one that I am currently on… Chapter 3, Rescue – Amazing From Evil:  Evil must not have the final word.

Finding a balance between what to share and what not to share is difficult. Part of me wants to tell every detail of the abuse and demoralizing things that happened to me. Why? For sympathy? For people to know how terrible those abusers were?

None of those reasons.

I want the person reading the stories to know that no matter what evil happened to them someone understands. I may not understand their specifics, but the aftermath is the same.

Fear

Shame

Guilt

Hopelessness

Grief

Then there are flashbacks, sleepless nights, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and haunting dreams.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to live in that never-ending cycle of anguish. Jesus will pull you out and up, as He did with me.

“I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry.

He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps.

He has put a new song in my mouth-

Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, and will trust in the LORD” (Psalm 40:1-3/NKJV).

Wouldn’t it be amazing to be free from the nightmares?!

By Christ’s sacrifice and suffering. I am free!

Free from fear, without shame, having no guilt, released from hopelessness, unburdened from grief, and cleansed and free to be used by God! You can be unencumbered from these burdens too!

Aren’t you weary of struggling in that miry pit?

You have to let it go. Forgive the person who did horrible deeds to you. You may have to forgive them only from your heart for safety reasons… I did. If you hold on to the cruelty then the abuser still has control over you. Take that control away! Be unshackled!

Look at the suffering that Christ experienced for you! Jackie Hill Perry writes, “The only way I’ve chosen to make sense of it all is not by understanding God through the lens of my circumstances but understanding God by the things that happened on the cross.”

Why is there evil in the world?

C. S. Lewis shares the reality of free will, “God created things which had free will. That means creatures which can go either wrong or right. Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot. If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad. And free will is what has made evil possible. Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of automata-of creatures that worked like machines-would hardly be worth creating.”

Paul in Galatians states it like this, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (5:1). Satan will constantly try to bombard you with condemnation, but if you believe in Christ, you can use the power that He provides through the Holy Spirit.

“There are forces all around you working to undermine the freedom Jesus died to give you. Whispers of condemnation, feelings of fear and insecurity, graceless messages from well-meaning believers, constant criticism from those you love. Day after day your spiritual liberty and God-given identity are assailed from all sides” Dr. Charles Stanley.

Unless you cling with faith to the freedom Christ gave you as His child, you will continue to spiral downward. But if you stand in faith, meditate on God’s Word, and pray quietly or out loud every time you feel an attack against you, then you can live in freedom from the past, have freedom in the present, and be free for the future to be used by God for His purpose and His glory.

Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:36

Rise Up!

Stand Firm!

Be Free!

** I appreciate prayers in writing Chapter 3 to make it helpful and not hurtful. Thanks!