Let’s take this last week a little deeper.

1.  When you experience a role reversal, you are free to hear His voice (page 122-123).

Mary Magdalene was once tormented, but her encounter with Christ released her to hear His words saying she was worthy, that her life mattered, that she was a friend to Him. What words have you not been hearing as you’ve held on to unforgiveness?

2. When you experience a role reversal, you are free to have a future (pages 124-125).

For Stephanie, it meant she no longer lived life looking through the rearview mirror. How has your past kept you from being all that you desire to be? What would it look like to stop living life looking through the rearview mirror?

3. Sexual abuse ins’t normal, nor is it acceptable. Forgiving the abuser isn’t saying that it is normal or acceptable. It’s not saying that you don’t prosecute to keep others safe. But pardoning is God’s role, not ours.

Krateõ forgiveness in this instance is separating another person’s actions from the way you perceive yourself. Sexual or physical or emotional abuse is what happened to you, not who you are.  Take a moment and soak that in. Let’s speak this together:

Father, release the hold that abuse placed on my  heart.

Father, replace the message that I embraced as truth with Your truth.

Father, loose the fear and lack of trust that was conceived.

I am beautiful and whole and healed because of Your touch on my life.

4. Let God breathe over your life today. When you experience a role reversal, you are free to pour into others.

Maybe, like Stephanie, you are years down the road and God is using your story to impact others. Maybe, you have just begun, but today is the first day that you sense what was meant for harm may somehow one day help another person find freedom, and you are willing to begin the next chapter, the one where you are all that you know you can be (and all that God designed you to be). Let’s pray this prayer together.

Father, You set me free! Today may be a beginning, but I celebrate the unlocked doors of my prison. It’s scary out there, but I am not alone. Just outside that prison door is wholeness. New doors to open. Hard places to walk through, but with Your leading. I accept that key today. I am willing to forgive, to receive my role reversal, to explore with You what that looks like. Today, my past takes it’s rightful place in my heart and in my life. In the powerful name of Jesus, amen.