Encouragement

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The Desolate woman
In 2 Samuel 13:11-14 you can read this story David. had a daughter named Tamar. Tamar had two brothers Absalom and a half brother Amnon. Amnon had a cunning friend whom he discussed his relationship with Tamar with. Amnon told his friend that he loved his half sister and desired her. His friend devised a scheme to trick Tamar into baking for her brother so he would be alone with her. Amnon had several friends over which were sent away so he could be alone with Tamar. When Tamar brought the food to Amnon, he asked her to get in bed with him. She refused, which caused Amnon to be very angry with her. Amnon raped her and then threw her out. Tamar cried and was stunned by what her half brother did to her. Scripture tells us that she was a desolate woman in her brothers house. The Hebrew word for desolate is Shamen which means Tamar was appalled, stunned, awestruck and kept silent. She did not talk much. Tamar was obviously traumatized by what had been done to her. Being abused in this manner can cause trauma in one’s life.
Can you imagine the fears that probably plagued her? How can one recover from such trauma?
Many times when a woman has been abused in this manner she does get thrown out, causing her to feel even more rejected. Many times even those closest to her may blame or reject her or do both and she is left to feel desolate and alone. She may act differently towards people, and she may get hurt easily and find it difficult to relate to men even casually anymore.
Jesus experienced rejection. It might be that he is the only one that you can turn to at that time.. Jesus said in John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. It should be that one could turn to those who claim the name of Christ for help and acceptance, but sad to say many times that is not where one will experience that either.
Jesus received more rejection from the religious people than he did from those that were not religious. It is no different today than it was in Jesus's time. There are organizations out there to help in your time of need, often times they are free to someone who has been abused in this manner.
Scripture has two beautiful and encouraging verses that offer encouragement:
Luke 4 The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.
Isaiah 61 is almost exactly the same.
Scripture from KJV
© by Zorrine Bailey 2010

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