Abuse feels like an experience that has stamped you and
has the final word on your identity. But the truth is that God
gives you a different identity. No matter what terrible atrocities happened to
you, they are not your identity. Your identity as God’s child is far deeper
than the abuse you suffered.
When you come to God through trusting in Jesus, he gives you a
new identity. You become part of the family of God. You are his dearly loved
child. Listen to what the apostle John says about your identity, “How great is
the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of
God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). You have a perfect Father in
heaven who loves you and wants to fill your life with the good gift of himself
(Luke 11:13).
Because you are God’s child, you are not alone in a nightmare of
pointless suffering. It’s true that “the heart knows its own bitterness”
(Proverbs 14:10), and even your dearest friend can’t fully understand the
terror, the aloneness, the pain, and the horror you experienced. But Jesus does
understand, and he is with you.
Jesus experienced every form of suffering when he was in the
world. “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted
with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). He was betrayed and tortured. He is well acquainted
with your grief, and he will never leave you (John 14:18).
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