Genesis 1:27“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them”
I had the honor to speak at a Sunday night service in Lewiston, Idaho. Many of the congregation members were above the age of sixty. I talked about shame, loving God, and about worthiness. I shared how I was taken advantage of as a child and didn’t know what love was until recent years. I shared this because I know that there are people of every age that have been abused this way in every church. I know because those are the people that come to me for prayer. The shame of being hurt as a child whether sexually, physically, or
emotionally stays with you for a long time and people would much rather push it down than reveal their scars. But true healing comes when we show our scars and allow Christ to take them.
We can't force people to understand that we're merely tools for our Lord, so we delivered a service like we always do, asking God to touch his children's lives and, like always, He did. After our last skit we started altar call. We asked people to raise their hands or come down to the altar if they needed prayer.
First, a woman named June came up to one of the girls on our team. She had a lot of pain in her back since 1964 and couldn’t stand or sit up straight. As one of our girls prayed over her, June began to stand up straight for the first time in years. The girl asked June if she had any unforgiveness in her heart. She never thought about it and soon left the girl to join her sister.
A little bit later June and her twin walked up together asking for prayer. They approached me gingerly and before anything else said, “We’re twins you know.” I laughed a little and asked for their names. Their names were June and Jane. I asked them what they wanted prayer for and they told me they related to my story of abuse; they shared that at the age of 7 they knew what molestation was from family members. June told me that when she was 12 her family began grooming her for other people's pleasure and she was told she had no worth except for that. Then Jane shared that both her and her sisters husbands had all been very cruel and abusive, stealing their joy and any self love they had. Jane and June were trying not to cry as they shared their stories; they hadn’t told very many people if anyone. We prayed for healing and restoration, we prayed that they would see God as a loving father, not an angry man who can harm them but someone who shows their worth. The woman joined with me in prayer, agreeing for healing and a new love for God. When we finished, they thanked me and asked if I could pray for new husbands for them. “We’ve never been treated right by any man, either of us, our entire lives and we want to be loved the way God wants us to be loved.” Jane said so optimistically and June agreed whole heartedly. It was one of the most pure and touching prayer requests I have ever heard. To see that these women who were in their 70’s still knew that God can answer their prayers and weren’t afraid to ask for their hearts desire was beautiful. They smiled as I agreed and we giggled together. When we finished a second prayer, they hugged me and held my hands. They were some of the most appreciative people I’ve ever had the honor to meet. They were full of grace and beauty and for once, they truly saw their worth and how the Lord sees them. As his precious and beautiful daughters.
It is hard to rip off the scales that we wear sometimes. We don’t want to see ourselves the way that God sees us because we worry that we can’t truly be that. Or we try and try but we cannot remove the negative feelings and worthlessness that we keep attached to us. How then, can we receive this healing? Often times it is revealing parts of us that are not pretty. It is being honest and asking again and again for prayer and affirmation. It is seeing that Chirst is the one who took away that worthless feeling and God who gives us our new name. So we can confidently say my name is worthy.
It was a beautiful thing to see how they progressed over the weekend and how God changed their lives.
1 Peter 1:18-19“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”