Overcoming A Victim Mentality (3)
Wednesday February 22, 2017
People with a victim mentality often confuse love with pity or rescue. They think good things only happen to others. They feel anxious and overly sensitive. Can God make a way for them to have a satisfying and meaningful life? Yes! Yes! Yes!
Jesus suffered and died on the cross to deal with all sin and injustice and enable us to be free and have life with God forever – a life that is full and satisfying. Jesus became a victim so we no longer have to live as one. His death in our place covers sins done by us and injustices done to us.
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6 NIV)
It is very challenging for those of us who have spent years living with a victim mentality to move into the experience of being an overcomer. Why? We have become familiar with a lifestyle of not using our own initiative and wanting someone else to “do it for us”. Under our conscious fear of rejection is often an unconscious layer of anger, not just against the abuser, but also against those who “should have” protected us and did not.
God wants to release us from the bondage of a victim mentality and help us grieve painful losses. Rather than continuing to blame others, He invites us to receive healing for the wounds, and forgiveness for the resentments we’ve held. As we bring our troubled situations to God for His help and healing, He will take hold of our hand and say, “Do not fear; I will help you”. (Isaiah 41:13 NIV)
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, help us to turn from protecting ourselves at all costs and begin to learn from you how to live with realistic expectations and safe boundaries in loving relationships. AMEN
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