Snack Time // SAAM 2013, Hope, & I’m Safe Now Here

For the month of April Anna has been doing something on her Facebook music page that I’ve found really encouraging. She has been taking verses from the Book of Isaiah and replacing some words with the words VICTIM and ABUSER. She said she was doing this to “make you feel empowered and encourage you to think about abuse in a new way.” 

And that’s what it comes down to in the end… Hope. It’s not a stage a grieve like Anna has been talking about this past week in our videos, but it’s what you reach for when the grieving has ended. Click the video above hear more about what she has to say about being a victim of sexual abuse and hope.

Here are the verses that Anna shared so far this past month.. I hope they bring empowerment, courage, love, and healing to your heart.

Day 1 //

“[Victims] shall be redeemed by justice…But [abusers] shall be broken together.” // Isaiah 1:27-28

Day 2 //

“And the haughtiness of [abusers] shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of [abusers] shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.” // Isaiah 2:14

Day 3 //

“For behold the Lord God of hosts is taking away from [abusers] support and supply.” // Isaiah 3:1

Day 4 //

“The [victims] shall be beautiful and glorious.” // Isaiah 4:1

Day 5 //

“Woe to [abusers] who call evil good and good evil.” // Isaiah 5:20

Day 6 //

“And he touched [the victim’s] mouth and said: “Behold this has touched your lips; [the abusers] guilt is taken away, and [the abusers] sin is atoned for.” // Isaiah 6:7

Day 7 //

“Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these [abusers].”  // Isaiah 7:4

Day 8 //

“And I will get reliable witnesses…to attest for [the victims].” //  Isaiah 8:2

Day 9 //

“But there will be no gloom for her [a victim] who was in anguish.” // Isaiah 9:1

Day 10 //

“In that day the [victims] and the survivors…will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.”  // Isaiah 10: 20

Day 11 //

“[Abusers] shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain.”  // Isaiah 11: 9

Day 12 //

“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” // Isaiah 12: 2

Day 13 //

“The LORD of hosts is mustering a host for battle…The LORD and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the [abusers].” // Isaiah 13: 5

Day 14 //

“When the LORD has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the [abusers]: ‘How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased! the LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers.'” // Isaiah 14: 3-5

Day 15 //

“My heart cries out for [victims].” // Isaiah 15: 5

Day 16 //

Let the [victims] sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the [abuser].” // Isaiah 16:4

Day 17 //

“The [abusers] roar like the roaring of many waters, but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away.” // Isaiah 17:13

Day 18 //

“All you [victims] of the world…when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!” // Isaiah 18: 3

Day 19 //

“The [abusers] are utterly foolish; the wisest counselors of [abusers] give stupid counsel.” // Isaiah 19: 11

Day 20 //

“As my servant…has walked naked…so shall [the abusers], naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of [abusers]. Then [the abusers] shall be dismayed and ashamed.” //  Isaiah 20: 3-4

Day 21 //

“Go up, [victims], lay siege, [victims]; all the sighing [the abusers] have caused I bring to an end.” // Isaiah 21:2

Day 22 //

“Behold, the LORD will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die.” // Isaiah 22: 17-18

Day 23 //

“The LORD has given command concerning [sexual abuse] to destroy its strongholds.” // Isaiah 23:11

Day 24 //

“[The abusers] will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit; they will be shut up in a prison, and after many days they will be punished.” // Isaiah 24: 22

Day 25 //

“And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of [the victims] he will take away.” //  Isaiah 25: 8

Day 26 //

“You keep him in perfect peace [the victim] whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” Isaiah 26: 3

Day 27 //

“In that day the Lord with his hard and great strong sword will punish [abusers].” // Isaiah 27:1

Day 28 //

“This is rest; give rest to the [victims].” // Isaiah 28:12

Will you try to find hope?

Snack Time // Rape did not bring me closer to Jesus.

“There are some who would want me to say that being raped brought me closer to Jesus and is therefore ‘worth it.’

I don’t agree with that. Rape did not bring me closer to Jesus.

Being raped, especially in a church and by church-going people, drove me from God and made me mistrust and even hate Jesus. It broke my awareness of relationship with and safety in Him.

I did not come to Jesus BECAUSE of being raped, I came IN SPITE of it.

If it weren’t for His reckless pursuit of me and endless love for me, I would have abandoned my faith (and my life) long ago. But He held onto me, even while I ran. Because of that eternal hold, I always had a lifeline, and while I suffered an extremely painful and chronic abuse, I lived. I survived, and I am being healed.

I have not been abandoned, and I have not been hopeless.

My God has had a plan for me all along, and it includes recovery from rape. Not because He wanted it to happen, but because He knew it would. For those who would say God planned for me to be abused, I ask you to note the following; Jesus instructed His disciples to pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” Why would Jesus ask us to pray that God’s will be done if God’s will was already being done all of the time?

God is sovereign, but His protection requires submission.

And because the people around me didn’t submit to His hand, I was raped against the will of my Father in Heaven.”

-Anna Westbrook, Adult Victim of Childhood Rape.

Snack Time // 261 Days Later

It’s funny how 261 days later I am still struggling with this… But it is okay that I am still struggling with this.

I am growing, I am learning, I am listening. I am moving forward… Even if that movement is one step forward and two steps back, the two more steps forward and one step back, that is still progress. Right now is where I am suppose to be…

I am here.

I am living.

And there is SO much comfort in that.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. // Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

What are you still struggling with?