The most important of issues for survivors are ultimately spiritual ones: If God is a loving God, why did He allow this to happen? Why didn't He stop them? Why did He permit such evil to happen? Did He care what happened to me? How can I believe in Him when I was allowed to suffer so much? Why didn't He send someone to stop it? Why? And, does He know? Does He see and hear my pain? Does He care? And, will He make the perpetrator pay?

 

Those and many others are the profound questions underlying all the pain, and need to be answered. Some can be answered adequately, some not so easily. However, the first step in your healing lies in a willingness to risk... to risk believing that, despite what it feels like, and despite all the legitimate unanswered questions to date, that maybe, just maybe, there is a God who loves you, cares deeply and intensely about the pain and injustice you experienced and were subjected to, and that maybe He has brought you to this point and place in your struggle and journey for the purpose of helping to set you free.

 

How can you trust, you may ask? How can you risk believing that the God of Heaven is somehow different than what you have concluded Him to be, a God who sat back silently, as your world was ripped apart, your soul was ripped wide open, and the evil perpetrators who had their way are able to simply finish their evil deed, and walk away unscathed?

 

Well, it is exactly that kind of evil that was visited upon Jesus, God's one and only Son, whom He loves more than all else. He was abused, horribly treated, tortured, and left to die... alone... while His perpetrators smiled their evil smug smiles, convinced that they had gotten away with the perfect plan, and that they would never have to answer for their evil actions.

 

And, after being subjected to such heinous diabolical abuse, after he was forced to see the sneers and smirks of the proud perpetrators, He suffered alone, being left to suffer, with questions of God's sovereignty and presence being left unanswered. Yet, after 3 days, He would have an answer, and so would the perpetrators! It was then that He was brought back to life, by His Father, who proclaimed to the world of His care and concern for His son, and His love for us, by resurrection. In the midst of the darkness and confusion, in the midst of the pain and unanswered questions, it is the Resurrection that can begin to help you and me to risk believing that God was not silent and indifferent as we had been left to conclude. No, far from it, The silence was simply His holdings back His rage so that His love could be extended to us out of the darkness, and into the hearts of those willing to risk reaching out toward Him.

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He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with the most profound of grief... He was abused, rejected, left alone, abandoned... or so it looked and felt like... until God's timing. He was not passive about the evil perpetrated against His son, and He is not passive about yours. But, you must be willing to risk believing in His heart of love, of His willingness to forgive for what we have done to others, and for a chance at a new beginning, where He can begin to show us Who He is, and what His heart is truly like.

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So, how can you believe in what is unseen? How can you believe in a new birth? How can you believe in a Resurrection. Maybe this video can help...