Is it possible to find healing from trauma and abuse?
How do you overcome the emotional roller coasters and the struggle with doubt, fear, and insecurity? My guest this week on The Bible Speaks to You Podcast, Marina Carrier, answers these questions and more. She shares her deep love for God and her path to healing from abuse and trauma. Her story is a testament to the power of faith, resilience, and the transformative love of God.
After a successful career in education, she would later find her true calling in helping others find healing and spiritual growth.
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Journey of healing
In our conversation, Marina shared her pretty personal experiences and the pivotal role her faith has played in her healing process. She was an unwanted child and was abused sexually until she was nine. I really appreciated her openness in discussing her past and the lessons she’s learned from them.
As an adult, after a successful career in education, she got serious about her faith and came back to church. She realized she needed to deal with the stuff from her past.
When she first started talking to God, Marina really wasn’t that familiar with the Bible. But she kept talking to God, asking questions, and listening. And she began hearing God’s voice.
She felt impelled by God to start writing down her thoughts in a journal. This helped her learn to articulate her ideas and this helped bring healing.
The Prayer of Jabez
Marina and I talked about why the Jabez prayer was so important to her spiritual growth. Jabez asks God to bless him and expand his territories, his boundaries. Marina felt God asking her to stretch herself and learn new things. And she did.
She went to Switzerland and ended up learning French. That really forced her to grow and it was an important part of her healing.
Pain is deep in the heart, Marina pointed out. Learning new things makes you use your abilities and this helps you heal. The important thing is to not close down or withdraw into yourself.
Let God do the healing
Marina kept focusing on how important it is to let God do whatever healing needs to happen. We can’t heal ourselves. It’s only with God’s help. She encourages everyone to put the healing in God’s hands.
And I was intrigued by her insistence that we need to listen to our pain and see what is really going on. As it turns out, she had suppressed the painful memories of her childhood abuse and when she helped a colleague with a program about recognizing child abuse, the memories flooded out from their hidden places in her heart.
She realized she needed to acknowledge they were there and get them out in the open before they could be healed.
It’s so important to know God. But Marina points out there is a head-knowledge of God and a heart-knowledge of God. We have to get to know God with our heart.
If you have not experienced abuse or trauma, it’s sometimes hard to know hat to say to someone who has. Marina says to never dole out platitudes. That never helps at all. Instead, just love them. Listen to them with your heart more than your head. Be compassionate. Don’t try to fix them. Just love them.
Wherever you are on your journey to healing from abuse and trauma, keep turning to God. Always turn to God and listen for His guidance, encouragement, and love.
Three final questions:
- If you could talk to any Bible character other than Jesus, who would it be and what would you ask them? Mary the Mother of Jesus. I would ask what it was like before Jesus was born and how did it feel when Simeon said she would suffer.
- Is there any Bible character you especially identify with? Job and Habakkuk
- This podcast is about getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus. How would you describe Jesus’s original message of how he wanted us to live our lives? It’s about being like a little child and knowing that you need help, that you can’t do everything on your own.
Photo Credit: Tim Foster
Download the full transcript
Contact info for Marina Carrier:
Facebook
YouTube
www.overcoming.live
Marina Carrier was born out of wedlock and was an unwanted child. She was abused sexually by her step-father up till she was 9 years old. However, she went on through her school years and did well. She eventually got a Masters in Applied Research in Education and then worked on her PhD at the University of East Anglia. Throughout her career, she taught all ages and finished her work as Acting Head of Department of In-Service Education of Teachers at Bristol Polytechnic.
She stepped back from all this because she realized a need to take care of her own deep spiritual needs.
For 30 years after God called her back to the Church, she was led through ‘the dark night of the soul’, finding the mystery of the Inner World – and what it means to live in ‘Spirit and in Truth’. She learned the wonder of humility, and the mystery of giving all her burdens to Christ and this brought healing.
With greater understanding of the effects of trauma and PTSD, healing in faith brought compassion and the desire to bless and serve others who bore heavy burdens of lovelessness and shame.
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life. Contact him here.
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Bible References
Isaiah 49:15 NIV
15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
Colossians 3:23 NIV
23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,
Matthew 11:2, 3 NIV
2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples
3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
1 Chronicles 4:9, 10 NIV
9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.”
10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.
Luke 23:34 NIV
34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”[
Psalm 31:5 KJV
5 Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.
Psalm 22:1 NLT
1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Romans 8:17 KJV
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
1 Peter 3:19, 20 NLT
19 So he went and preached to the spirits in prison—
20 those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat.
Luke 2:35 KJV Simeon to Mary
35 (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
Habakkuk 3:17, 18 NIV
17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Luke 18:17 NIV
17 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.
