How to Heal from Spiritual Abuse

We humans claw our minds to tatters by accusing people. It might be oneself or someone else, but no matter who is targeted and what it does to him or her, it always backfires, irreparably damaging the accuser. The situation is so dire that Christ sacrificed his all to resolve the disaster created by our judgmental attitude. In the horror of his agony, the Innocent One took all the blame upon himself to give us peace. Even so, we keep finding ourselves tempted to spurn the cross and revert to accusations.

In the case of spiritual abuse, it might be hating ourselves for being so gullible, or despising those we blindly followed, or resenting God for not purging from the church every possible offense from (which, embarrassingly, would have to include ourselves). Whatever form it takes, every time we again resort to assigning blame, we squander our lives and insult the One who gave everything that we might stop fault-finding and enjoy the peace that Christ has created by becoming, quite literally, our scapegoat (Scriptures).

What could possibly exceed the potential of spiritual abuse to wreak devastation on someone? One’s very spiritual life and entire eternity is at stake. Something of this enormity needs a God-sized solution. And for that, one needs a God-sized heart – a heart throbbing with the love of the God who sacrificed everything to secure the forgiveness of his enemies.

Spiritually, to live is to love, and to love is to forgive. As we cannot have physical life without a heart, we cannot have spiritual life without love. To distill 1 Corinthians 13, without love, we are nothing.

1 John 3:14-15 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

Dominating God’s priorities and cramming his agenda is forgiveness and the restoration of broken fellowship. How can we move with God – how can we even be headed in the same direction – unless this is our agenda? Put another way: the entire Christian life is about becoming increasingly Christlike, which of necessity means loving and forgiving, no matter how high the price.

For help with forgiving others please see Lord, Make Him Regret What He Did To Me!: A Healing Experience

For more help with spiritual abuse, please see Spiritual Abuse Help

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