Scripture: Psalm 57:1-3 NLT
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy!
I look to you for protection.
I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings
until the danger passes by.
I cry out to God Most High,
to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.
He will send help from heaven to rescue me,
disgracing those who hound me.
My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness.
Devotion: A common and understandable question from those who have been abused is, “Why didn’t God protect me from the abuse?” An important place to start in seeking an answer to this question is to first know that the reason He didn’t prevent the abuse is not because He doesn’t love you. God has proved His love for you in many ways, but the most important way is that because of His love for you He allowed His Son to die on the cross for you. So whatever God’s reasons are, you can know, with certainty, that it is because He deeply loves you. That may seem like an impossible reality. But consider that God allowed His own beloved Son Jesus to suffer abuse for a loving reason. Even earthly parents who truly love their children must allow them to experience the great hardship of life in order to learn needed understanding and character. Even during Jesus' own life, he gained learning from what He suffered while He lived it (Hebrews 5:7-8).
A harsh reality of our fallen world is that people’s free will allows them the free will to abuse others. Yet God, right now, is in the process of ultimately fixing this reality. Even right now, He promises that He will take whatever abuse He allows and use it for good in the abused one’s life if they love God (Romans 8:28).
Another hard but true reality is that God actually did protect you in the abuse. God did not allow your body to be destroyed, nor your soul to be destroyed, nor your life to be destroyed. He kept you alive and, even more importantly, God wants you to be healed of your abuse (Psalm 147:3). God provides a healing process for you. His healing process will shape you into the person He wants you to be, a person more like Jesus. There is eternal purpose in your process of healing.
So… one answer to why God allowed the abuse was so that He could take you through a healing process that would bring about abundant good in your life, including becoming more like Jesus. Though the pain of the abuse is a very high cost, God knows that the eternal good He will produce from it is well worth the high cost. So be sure to allow yourself to be healed by God.
If you are in need of God’s healing process and would like help to go through it, there is Christian counseling available. Sunnybrook Church provides one-on-one, confidential biblical counseling through our Revive Counseling Ministry.
Reflect:
- Spend some time with God talking to Him about Psalm 57:1-3, about your pain, and about how He is your protector and provider of eternal healing.
