Ministering To Victims Of Incest.

Originally Posted by Scott Hutchinson

Sadly there are sick people in this troubled world of ours.
When people come into the church who are victims of Incest, how can we effectively minister healing and wholeness to them ?
How can we compassinately reach out to these battered and wounded people whom Christ died for ?

First, keep them out of the hands of practitioners of that wicked worldly philosophy known as "psychology"! Second, it's important to bring them to a place where they can learn to forgive the perpetrator the way Christ forgave their sins (keep in mind that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God) because until that forgiveness takes place there will never be healing and wholeness. Third, more important than anything else is the person's relationship with Christ. Satan often uses these kinds of situations to turn a person away from Christ - even if it's just going as far as getting the person to hold Christ somewhat at a distance while not completely walking away from Christian faith.

It's also important to help the person understand that he or she is not at fault and that there was nothing he or she did to deserve it, and to let that understanding sink in to the very core of their being (it isn't enough to intellectually acknowledge that one isn't at fault and didn't deserve it, one has to receive it all the way down into the very seat of one's emotions). All too often, victims may know in their mind that they're not at fault and didn't deserve it but they hold onto a belief in their heart that they are somehow at fault or that they did somehow deserve it. This prevents the healing process from even starting.