A Prayer for Sexual Abuse Victims

We’re down to the last three days in crowdfunding #NotMarked. I’m praying we’ll make it to the $25,000 level so I can create the audio book. To find out more about Not Marked: Finding Hope and Healing after Sexual Abuse, click here.

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{Please place your name in the blanks. Or ask a friend to pray this prayer over you, using your amazing name. To avoid the he/she dilemma, I’m using “they” and “them.”}

Jesus,

I lift up _______________. I pray You would usher them toward healing, calming their nerves as they consider uncovering the pain from the past.

Be so near ___________________ in their storytelling process. Help ______________ to know that an untold story never heals, that stuffing the pain only hurts them and others. Please bring amazing people into _______________’s life who also long to see them set free. Please give ____________ guts and bravery to share with those safe people.

Give ______________ a holy longing to be set free from the past and courage to seek healing. While it is true that sexual violation once marked and marred _________________, it is truer still that You will take this devastation and make a resilient, beautiful life from the ashes of back then. Instead of being marked, show ______________ that they are spotless, unmarked, whole.

Do some deep heart healing in terms of worth. Show ______________ that they are not a mistake on this earth, that You have a plan for them.

Thank You that You can handle ________________’s questions, anger, and frustration. Help ___________ voice that anger, give it wind.

While Satan wanted to destroy and de-story _______________, he will not have victory any longer in ______________’s life. Silence those demeaning thoughts that tear at _______________’s value. Bring deep grace if ______________ blames themselves for the sexual abuse. Help ________________ internalize that what happened wasn’t asked for, wasn’t wanted. Set _____________ free from feeling dirty.

And would You please heal _____________’s sexual identity? Bring health to ______________’s perception of sex. If it be Your will, bring a patient spouse who will walk through _____________’s sexual abuse in a healthy manner. And if ___________ gets stuck in this area, please provide financially for a counselor who can bring ___________ farther along the journey.

Help ______________ to forgive the people who sexually abused them. Not to let them off the hook at all, but so they can be set free from being tied to them through anger and bitterness. Give ____________ the gumption needed to make a choice today that the perpetrator’s heinous act no longer needs to define them.

So much of ____________’s pain in this life can be traced back to the sexual abuse that happened. But I pray that the rest of ____________’s life is beautifully marked by a new resolve to be healthy and become an agent of empathy in this sex-sick world. May _____________ become a conduit of change for other sexual abuse victims. May ______________ boldly share their story in the light, so others can identify and find hope.

Wash away any shame that _____________ still feels. Help family members and friends embrace ______________ instead of judge. Bring _____________ into a healing community of authenticity.

Bring laughter back into _____________’s life. Bring joy. Bring hope. Bring peace. Bring life. Bless ____________’s family in abundant ways. Come near.

Amen.

If you’d like to share this, here’s a graphic of the same prayer. Pin it, email it, whatever you’d like to do.