Healing from severe trauma doesn’t happen overnight.  It is a process.  All things are possible with God, yet it takes time. Lisa shares how God met her to slowly replace the lies of shame that came as a result of her experience of domestic abuse, with His truth.  She began to understand that this painful part of her story didn’t define her.  Her identity was and is in Christ and what He says is true about her.  

Domestic abuse often remains hidden because of the pain of the experience and the shame that often accompanies it.  Lisa shares her story of being married to an abusive husband who nearly crushed her by his cruelty.  God powerfully met her in the pain and brought hope and change.

Healing from any kind of trauma takes time, but is possible.  Claire Atenian, LMFT, shares her expertise on betrayal trauma, in this re-release of any early well-received episode.  She offers suggestions on where to find help, and gives encouragement for that healing.  

Relational trauma affects our minds and bodies more than we might understand at first.  Research has proven how greatly trauma impacts a person.  Trauma can also produce shame.  In this re-release of an early podcast episode, Claire Atenian, LMFT, shares her expertise in Betrayal Trauma. She gives helpful information on identifying this type of trauma.  

When the unexpected happens and a pastor is divorced, who is he?  Is he disqualified from ministry?  Or is he still a beloved child of God who can serve others?  Doug Glynn, pastor of Hope Covenant Church, shares the journey of how God’s grace restored him, freeing him to live out of who he is in Christ.  

Hiding and pretending to be more spiritually mature than I am doesn’t help me grow.  When I can be honest about where I’m at, I don’t have to perform.  I can begin to grow in intimacy with God.  Doug Glynn, pastor of Hope Covenant Church in Chandler, AZ, shares how he first came to understand and experience the freedom of God’s grace.  

Jesus died and rose again to give us new life. Our identity is no longer what we have done, or what was done to us.  Our identity is in Christ.  The old is gone, the new has come. Though we still sin, God calls us saints, because He made us holy and righteous through Christ.  Trusting that this is true frees us to stand in confidence of what He has accomplished for us. 

Easter is the ultimate victory for Christians.  When Jesus rose from the dead, it proved He was who says He was, and He did what He said He would do.  In the resurrection, He conquered sin and death.  He won the victory over His enemy, the devil.  He broke the power of sin. The Holy Spirit then birthed in believers a new heart and a new spirit.  Because of the gifts that are ours in Christ through the resurrection, we can live in freedom and peace.

Jesus’s death on the cross is not a mere historical fact.  It was God’s plan to bring hope to the world.  The gifts of the cross:  forgiveness, propitiation, atonement, redemption, love, and grace, were given by God so that we might know Him and live in the power and beauty of those gifts.  Receiving these gifts lifts us from shame.

Shame prevents believers from standing on the firm foundation given to us in Christ. As we submit to the truth in God’s Word and allow others to remind us of our true identity, we can cast off the lies of shame. We can embrace what Jesus has accomplished for us. Spiritual growth increases, and God’s intention for our lives comes to fruition.

God is not surprised by our shame stories.  He understands the dynamics of shame far beyond what we can comprehend.  In our desire to mature as believers, Bruce McNicol, founder and past president of the ministry Trueface, shares how facing shame and trusting God with our shame stories can help us grow and experience God on a deeper level.  Doing so frees us to love and honor others in the way God designed us to love.

It’s difficult to surrender to a God you don’t trust.  Shame can hinder our ability to obey God from the heart, because shame and unbelief go hand in hand.  Without faith, we won’t grow. We won’t mature as believers.  As we come to experience the love of God and believe His value in us, we can take risks to surrender our hearts before Him.

Sometimes God’s Word can seem intimidating.  We may want to avoid reading or studying it because of past experiences.  God is not hindered by this challenge.  Finding a safe place to come to know God through His Word can relieve some of the cautiousness.  And He is able to meet us right where we are, no matter the seeming obstacles in our path.  He gave us His Word because He wants us to know Him.  

God’s Word reveals God’s heart.  It shows us who He is and who we are.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  God is not a distant being, but One who moves toward us in love.  He gives us His Word to enable us to trust His character and intention.  The more we study it and meditate on it, the more we feel at rest in His presence.

God’s Word is powerful.  It is greater than our shame. It is stronger than our fears and unbelief.  It can speak to us even when we aren’t yet ready to trust it.  God speaks to us through His Word because He wants us to know Him.  Shame can distort our interpretation of God’s Word, but as we read and meditate on it, we come to know what is true, rather than what our fear and unbelief can tell us.

When an artist feels freedom of expression, it ignites their creativity. They fear the judgment of others less. This is what happened for Anna.  Through God’s grace, she experienced healing from the hurts in her past.  She could offer forgiveness toward those who misjudged her.  She began to enjoy God for who He is, instead of who she feared Him to be.  

Growing up with a pragmatic father and a busy mother, Anna felt unknown and misunderstood as an artist.  It became easy, then, for her to believe that God would respond to her in the same way. As she began to be affirmed and released into her artistic expression, she began to believe that God delighted in her design.

We, as humans, will never fully comprehend God and His ways in this life.  Only when we are face to face with Him in eternity will we see Him as He is.  Until that time, sin and the shame that accompanies it, distorts our perspective of Him. As we stand in the truth of what God says about Himself in His Word, we can live with greater confidence of His goodness and faithfulness to u

Ongoing hardships and our own repeated sins can cause us to draw the conclusion that God is disappointed in us.  There must be some reason why circumstances don’t change.  And He knows that we can’t stop sinning, no matter how many times we try to repent.  John Lynch, speaker, author, and former pastor, teaches about the gift God has given us in repentance, so that we can live in hope and freedom.  He also shares the hope that God is not punishing us by our trials, but instead wants to walk with us through them.

Believing what God says about me and what He has done for me breaks the power of shame. Evil would like nothing more than for me to believe God is disappointed with me.  Even on my worst day, my identity is Christ in me.  John Lynch, speaker, author, and former pastor, vulnerably shares the story of how shame was birthed in him.  He swore no one would ever know. When he learned the truth of his identity in Christ, the lie shame hissed at him lost its power.