Living Changed: After DivorceÀpẹrẹ

When It Happens to You

Divorce isn’t what God wants for us. He intended marriage to be until death do us part, and it grieves His heart when we break our promise. When a marriage ends in divorce, it tears apart two people who had become one. It is a deep pain God never wanted us to experience. 

I remember how I felt when my husband asked for a divorce. It was a mixture of shock and grief. I was in a complete daze trying to reconcile the life I thought we had, with the one he was describing. I could feel the life we had worked so hard to build slipping through my fingers. I couldn’t understand why. I couldn’t catch my breath. 

In the days and weeks that followed, I tried to keep myself together and shuffle forward as the world rushed by around me. I began to think of myself as damaged goods that no one else would ever want. I felt dirty, guilty, and ashamed. I convinced myself that I wasn’t enough, valuable, or worthy of love because otherwise he would have stayed. I gave into fear and believed that I was too old to remarry and would always be alone.

Maybe your story is like mine and you don’t believe you’re valuable because he didn’t stay and fight for you. Or maybe you don’t believe you’re worthy of love because of what you did that ended your marriage. No matter your circumstance, those lies aren’t true. Whether you were cheated on or you had the affair, you were left or you did the leaving, you are precious to God. You are cherished by the Creator of the universe, and He loves you just for being you.

In the depths of our pain, God doesn’t look on us with contempt. Instead, He chooses to see us through the lens of grace and have compassion on us. Our God is bigger than anything of this world. If we let Him, He can heal our pain, redeem us, and use our past to create something beautiful. 

Jesus, thank you for never giving up on me. I don’t deserve your grace, mercy, and love, but I’m forever grateful for it. Lord, heal this pain deep inside me. Take my guilt and shame. Replace the lie that I’m not enough with your truth that I am loved. Help me to believe I am precious, wanted, and irreplaceable. Thank you for renewing my soul and never leaving me alone. Show me the path forward and help me to follow you. In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.