We hear stories of survival and wonder “could I have done that?” Some of us hear those stories and feel “I am in a survival situation” and wonder if we can survive. You can and you are and you have already been saved by One who went through what you are going through.
Any abuse you have suffered is not your fault no matter what your abuser or anyone else says to you.
Unrepentant abusers will stand before Christ to answer for their crimes.
This is a sermon like Jacob delivered—uncomfortable to deliver or receive but necessary for the salvation of souls.
We are all intrigued by survival stories. We hear tales of intrepid explorers and ordinary people alike who manage to keep themselves alive against all odds and expectations, and we can’t help but ask ourselves, “Could I have done that?”
Perhaps some of you, however, consider the accounts of survivors, and your soul cries out that you are living a survival story right now as a victim of abuse, neglect, bullying, domestic violence, or any suffering of this kind. You are in the midst of your own desperate attempt to survive a situation that feels very much like a disastrous shipwreck or a promising mission suddenly aborted. Will you ever be rescued; will you make it through your own survival story?
The answer is yes. You can survive. You have in fact already been rescued; you have already been saved—by the One who has suffered the very torment you are suffering and endured the very agony you are enduring. Jesus has overcome the abuses of this world to give you power to not only survive but one day, through Him, to overcome and even conquer—to completely rise above the pain, the misery, the anguish, and see them replaced by peace.
Watching my children shows people who are still in survival mode. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that they are still in that mode when I can see that they are the ones preventing the situation being even better than it is now. We have come through the trial inflicted upon us but now we are surviving the trial that they continue to inflict because of their continued reliance on the coping techniques they developed during the true survival period.
Promises from the scriptures:
- Fear not.
- I know your sorrows, and I have come to deliver you.
- I will not leave you.
- My name is upon you, and my angels have charge over you.
- I will do wonders among you.
- Walk with me; learn of me; I will give you rest.
- I am in your midst.
- You are mine.
Anyone who still believes those promises in their bones will retain hope in Christ.
If you have experienced any kind of abuse, violence, or oppression, you may be left with the idea that these events were somehow your fault and that you deserve to carry the shame and guilt you feel. You may have had thoughts such as:
I could have prevented this.
God doesn’t love me anymore.
Nobody will ever love me.
I am damaged beyond repair.
The Savior’s Atonement applies to others but not to me
As we deal with survivors of any type of trauma we need to keep in mind that thoughts like these area normal human response no matter how misplaced they are.
The abuse was not, is not, and never will be your fault, no matter what the abuser or anyone else may have said to the contrary. When you have been a victim of cruelty, incest, or any other perversion, you are not the one who needs to repent; you are not responsible.
You are not less worthy or less valuable or less loved as a human being, or as a daughter or son of God, because of what someone else has done to you.
God does not now see, nor has He ever seen, you as someone to be despised. Whatever has happened to you, He is not ashamed of you or disappointed in you. He loves you in a way you have yet to discover. And you will discover it as you trust in His promises and as you learn to believe Him when He says you are “precious in [His] sight.”
When you truly discover how God loves you in, through, and bottoms your brokenness (or what you feel is your brokenness) you will feel to sing the song of redeeming love.
Though it may seem impossible, feel impossible, healing can come through the miracle of the redemptive might of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, who is risen “with healing in his wings.”
Our merciful Savior, victorious over darkness and depravity, has power to right all wrongs, a life-giving truth for those wronged by others.
Please know that the Savior has descended below all things, even what has happened to you. Because of that, He knows exactly what real terror and shame feel like and how it feels to be abandoned and broken. From the depths of His atoning suffering, the Savior imparts hope you thought was lost forever, strength you believed you could never possess, and healing you couldn’t imagine was possible.
No matter how broken you are, Christ can make you whole.
There is no place for any kind of abuse—physical, sexual, emotional, or verbal—in any home, any country, or any culture. Nothing a wife, child, or husband might do or say makes them “deserve” to be beaten. No one, in any country or culture, is ever “asking for” aggression or violence from someone else in authority or by someone who is bigger and stronger.
Those who abuse and who seek to hide their grievous sins may get away with it for a time. But the Lord, who sees all, knows the deeds and the thoughts and intents of the heart. He is a God of justice, and His divine justice will be served.Miraculously, the Lord is also a God of mercy to the truly repentant. Abusers—including those who were once abused themselves—who confess, forsake their sin, and do all in their power to make recompense and restitution, have access to forgiveness through the miracle of the Atonement of Christ.
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But unrepentant abusers will stand before the Lord to account for their heinous crimes.
Dear friends who have been so terribly wounded—and for that matter, anyone who has borne the injustices of life—you can have a new beginning and a fresh start. In Gethsemane and on Calvary, Jesus “took upon Himself … all of the anguish and suffering ever experienced by you and me,” and He has overcome it all! With arms outstretched, the Savior offers the gift of healing to you. With courage, patience, and faithful focus on Him, before too long you can come to fully accept this gift. You can let go of your pain and leave it at His feet.
A fresh start is exactly what we have been trying to offer the kids but they have not yet taken it up—least of all Isaac.
Your gentle Savior declared, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that [you] might have life, and that [you] might have it more abundantly.” You are a survivor, you can heal, and you can trust that with the power and grace of Jesus Christ, you will overcome and conquer.
Jesus specializes in the seemingly impossible. He came here to make the impossible possible, the irredeemable redeemable, to heal the unhealable, to right the unrightable, to promise the unpromisable. And He’s really good at it. In fact, He’s perfect at it.
I love this message not because I personally need it right now but because I know it for myself and because I know that many people desperately do need it.
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