Truth spoken in love is powerful.

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A survivor of abuse in Pennsylvania emailed Silence Broken to share her story, which she told in a sermon to her home church. She wrote, "Today came the revelation that the silence was broken; the curse of keeping a secret for 68 years was not just broken, but shattered!" She sent us the sermon, below, trusting that it will be a blessing to other survivors. 

 GIVING TO GOD

Today is a Sunday when we remember our call by God to be good stewards of the gifts that God has given to us. We are going to take some time to remember some of the gifts that God has given to us, for God is truly and abundantly generous. I will share a story with you that describes a different kind of giving. As we know, when the Holy Spirit is at work, we can be surprised. We will look at giving God some different kinds of gifts and what God does with them. For when God gives us a gift - we need to open our eyes to see it, open our hearts to receive it and open our minds to believe it.

Scripture, Romans 8:29-37(NLT):

For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory. What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares to accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one – for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one – for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right-hand pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

God gives more to us than we ever could give to Him. In this Scripture, God gives us right standing with himself. God gives us His glory. Those two things alone show an amazing amount of giving to us from God! God did this for us through the life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. And, possibly more amazing is that God allows us to choose to receive His gifts or not. The only thing God asks in return for all of the good gifts that He gives us is that we show Him love in return. I’m sure that God would not mind if every once in a while, we also said, “thank you!” (Like all the time).

When we teach our children to say “Thank you,” I have the feeling that God smiles. Children are dearly loved by God. We were all once children, and in some ways we will always have that little child alive within us regardless of our age. Children have a special place in God’s heart and in our hearts as well. If anything bad should happen to a child, our hearts yearn to give that child what they need to feel better. Isn’t it amazing how a hug and a kiss make so many boo-boo’s better so quickly! The child is actually mourning a loss and when we give that child comfort, just like God gives us comfort, it is a gift that can make life better.

But the hard reality is that not all children have parents who are tuned in to the needs of their children. Sometimes bad things happen to little children. This makes us very uncomfortable. We do not like to think about such things. And yet, Romans 8:28 tells us, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.” And when bad things happen, how incredibly difficult it is to believe that we can fully trust God to bring something good out of things that are terribly wrong. God does have the power and desire to redeem our lives.

There once was a small child whose older brother did something really bad to that child. The child was sworn to secrecy through a highly credible threat, which is often the case in such situations. The child had no other choice than to remain living with that family until old enough to leave, keeping that secret the entire time. The child received no comfort either physically or emotionally – no hugs, no kisses. The child at one point actually stood right in front of the mother who looked the other way. The child received no protection. The child never got to experience a true sense of safety while living in the family home. 

Where could God have possibly been in a situation like that? The truth is that God most certainly was there, along with a few angels. It seemed as though God always came through at just the right time and in just the right way. For God never leaves us. Bad things do not come from God. Evil does exist. This world is a fallen world with broken people in it. And God loves each and every one of us.

The child grew and when things got emotionally intolerable, the child, now 20 years old, walked out the door of that home and never lived there again. For you see, God had placed another person in the 20-year-old’s life who made it possible for there to be a safe place to live with people who gave of themselves. God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, can be at work in your life without you even knowing it.

The two got married shortly afterwards and were showered with many blessings from God, especially their two children. Was life perfect? No! Did that stop God’s blessings from showing up? No! The two worked hard and eventually were able to purchase a home. And God was there, also. There was an abundance of blessings through their years together.

Eventually, the one spouse passed away at age 58. The grief was devastating. But a long-desired grandchild had been born before that time. Another amazing blessing! 

In due time, the remaining spouse, who suffered with and had been treated for depression for a very long time, finally connected with just the right mental health professional at just the right time. The person opened the door to the past. Unfortunately, or so it would seem that person needed to retire. But God’s timing is always amazingly good. Another psychologist, a Christian psychologist, was found when the depression got worse again. 

Now this is where things get interesting! God showed up and began working in ways that were unbelievable. On the surface, it would appear that nothing much was going on, but the Spirit of God was moving in big ways. There was so much to learn and adjust to, but that once-little child was learning the depth of how much God’s love for them had always been there, even when it did not seem like it.

The most important thing that child, now older, learned was about giving to God. You see, God knows our hearts. God knows our desires, our deep yearnings to love and be loved. God provides ways for us to survive until we can understand how He can lead us through even the worst of situations and bring us safely to “green pastures” and “still waters.” God loves us dearly. God longs to give us gifts of peace, joy, love, and hope. But for us to receive these wonderful gifts from God, there are things that we need to release to God; for He can do things for us that we cannot do for ourselves.

God tenderly wants us to give to Him all those things that would keep His love from filling our hearts completely all the time. He does not want us to only give a gift of money to the church, even though that is useful and necessary. And we know that God appreciates it when we give of our time and talents. But God is looking for us to search our hearts and give Him things that we do not think of as gifts. But we know that whatever we give to God, He will turn it into something good. So what are we to give?

God wants us to give Him our hurts and He will give us His love; if you will, His hugs and kisses for our boo-boo’s. God wants us to:

Give God our loneliness and God will give us His companionship

Give God our anger and God will give us contentment

Give God our shame and God will lift us up

Give God our self-contempt and God will give us a beloved image of ourselves

Give God our hatred and God will give us understanding

Give God our grief and sorrow and God will give us comfort

Give God our fear and God will give us peace

Give God our worry and God will give us hope

Give God anything and everything that keeps His love from filling our hearts, and God will fill us with joy!

There is something important to remember – once we give these things to God, they are not ours anymore. We don’t own them. They do not belong to us. They belong to God and in exchange God is giving us something much better – love, peace, joy, hope, contentment, understanding, comfort and so much more.

God loves all of us so dearly that He is always giving us good gifts. It is up to us to choose to accept them. This can be especially challenging when we cannot see that inside the appearance of something bad, God still has something good. How can we know that? When we remind ourselves that God sees things that we cannot see, and God knows things that we cannot know, and God can do things that we cannot do; trusting God makes perfect sense regardless of how things look.

Let us remember that when God gives us a gift - we need to open our eyes to see it, open our hearts to receive it, and open our minds to believe it. Amen.