Grab your coffee mug and take a short break from the Zoo of Life!
Questions and Answers from one ZooKeeper to another.
Don’t let your past get in the way of your future!
Q. I am a 32-year-old woman, married with 2 children. Before marriage I did a lot of things I’m not proud of. My life has changed and I’ve asked forgiveness from the Lord, but the memories keep haunting me and I can’t seem to shake the feelings of guilt and shame. My mind tells me I’m forgiven but the memories won’t go away. I wonder how God could ever use me knowing what I know about myself. When I was very young I was sexually abused by a man who was trusted by my family and me. For so long I have felt dirty and ashamed. Others tell me it was not my fault but I still feel so ashamed of what happened and I can’t seem to move on. It affects everything in my life. I’d like to deal with it, but how?
A. I don’t want to beat around the bush with this one my friend! Let me state the answer up front based on the authority of our Owner’s Manual, the Word of God.
Emphatically, YES, you can be free of the shame, discouragement and guilt, once and for all, and you can be free today, right now. You don’t have to wait until tomorrow and you don’t have to wait until your counseling sessions are over or until you’ve worked through all the angles and details of the situation. You may need to work those through, but your freedom of heart doesn’t have to wait until you do.
First of all understand this; we are all in the same boat. We all have personally messed up and we have all been hurt by others due to no fault of our own. Yes, some stories are worse than others, but the surprise is this, both situations leave scars upon our heart that do not easily go away. But sisters - understand this, easy or not they can and will go away when we understand what the cure is.
Let’s deal with the first gal’s problem first. Sweetheart, let me state the obvious, yes you messed up. There, it’s a fact and it’s left a whole lot of hurt behind. Romans 3:10 says all have fallen short of God’s perfection. Some worse than others, but the cure is the same for Romans 10:13 says whoever calls upon the Lord will be forgiven, or saved even if you have done it to yourself. Whether you have messed a little bit or a whole lot, the cure is the same.
For example, have you ever had strep throat? I have and it’s not any fun. My son David and I can get it and we will feel bad but it won’t really stop us in our tracks. In fact, we won’t even run a fever. But if my husband Tom gets it, or my other sons, Tommy and Brady, watch out! Their fever will go to 103 and they won’t even be able to move. It totally wipes them out for several days.
The cure for strep throat is Antibiotics. Even though we react differently to the infection and one person feels worse than the other, the cure is the same for all of us. It doesn’t take a higher dose of the medicine, but the same dose will cure them both.
In the same way, whether you have fallen many times and in many ways or have not fallen as bad or as often, the dose and cure are the same. You see, strep throat is strep throat and sin is sin. I know, I know, people this day and time hate that word! Many automatically turn the speaker off as soon as they hear that word, but facts are facts. The Bible says sin (singular) is the real problem, not sins (plural) so whether few or many, the cure is the same and its name is forgiveness. Did you hear that - the cure for messing up - sin - is FORGIVENESS. We need to receive it!
We receive forgiveness from God when we confess to Him our wrongs. We must also forgive ourselves and many times that is the hardest thing to do. Remember this……if we refused the cure for strep throat it would develop into a life threatening illness in the long run.
Don’t let that happen in your spiritual life. Write me - let’s talk about it!
Blessings,
Brenda