Drops of Joy – A Devotional Journey of Healing — Update 8
How many of us face seemingly insurmountable problems that appear to us as green-eyed monsters beaconing our defeat? Spiritual abuse acts like that, especially when church leadership protects its own, and abusers gaslight with improper use of Scripture. Have you experienced something like that? This devotion is written for you, and is based on my experience.
From the book:
“I finally lost the inclination to do or say or be all that. I grew to understand things would not get better. As a Christian wife, I believed my choice was limited to putting up with it. There is such a thing as spiritual abuse, where the dominator misinterprets scripture in order to manipulate behavior and get what he or she wants. I got caught in that trap and became emotionally and physically crushed in its jaws. I avoided conflict by learning to be invisible, but that also meant becoming voiceless. That tact may have diminished the conflict some, but running from conflict doesn’t make it go away. It invites it. For that sociopathic personality who takes pleasure in toying with others’ emotions, dominating them, and using them, it makes the cringing one a target.
I take responsibility for my part in enabling the behavior by not knowing the Bible well enough. I also allowed the secret to remain in the dark, which let it grow and grow in my isolation.” (Taylor, Joy S., Drops of Joy – A Devotional Journey of Healing, 2026, Lily of the Valley Publishing Services, Indiana, p.19.)
Come and join me on this journey of God’s healing. May a piece of my past lead you to a better future through God’s intervention. Read. Pray. Heal.
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Here’s an audio version of this devotion “Defeated” for you.
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Joy S Taylor is a follower of Christ, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. Her workdays were spent using the Master of Science in Accounting degree that God graciously allowed at the age of, well, greater than 40. She led a divorce recovery support group sponsored by her church for seven years, and spent more than a decade in leadership roles for Celebrate Recovery and Care Net, using what God had done in her life to point others to the healing only Jesus gives. Now retired, she concentrates on writing for Jesus from her beloved hickory grove in Indiana, yet devotes some of her time to volunteering.