When someone has hurt or abused you, the memory can haunt you for a long time. That memory can get in the way of you healing. For me, healing finally came when I gave my pain to God and asked Him to help me forgive and heal.
Someone Has Hurt You Someone Has Abused
One morning when I was in my twenties, my own crying awakened me. I was dreaming about my life as a teenager. I couldn’t believe it. The hurt was bad enough when I was a teenager, but here I was being hurt all over again. And the ridiculous thing about it was, I was doing it to myself.
That was my wake-up call. I had to do something. I couldn’t do that again. It wasn’t healthy. This time I was the one hurting myself. I felt like I was letting the person hurt me all over again and they didn’t even know it. I began to take a good hard look back, and I realized the person had their own demons just as I now had mine. Understanding came with this realization, and with understanding came forgiveness. Forgiveness vanquished my demons.
Grieving and Healing
When someone has hurt you deeply, there is a grieving and healing process just like when someone you love passes away. Understanding that the person had his or her own demons can help with the healing process. But the biggest help is God.
God will help you heal and forgive. God will give you the strength. I know someone who has been terribly hurt and abused. She is a wonderful example of God working in lives to bring healing and forgiveness. Even though she is still healing and hurting, she loves and watches over one who hurt her. Out of this came my poem “Someone Has Hurt You, Someone Has Abused.”
When you love God, you want to follow His Word and His example. We forgive people because God has forgiven us not because they deserve it. But, while we are to forgive, there are certain hurts and experiences that we should not forget in order to protect ourselves from more harm.
Bible Verses
And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors (Matthew 6:12)
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15 KJV).
Matthew 18:21-35
Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. (Luke 17:3-4 KJV)
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:31-32 KJV)
bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. (Colossians 3:13)