possessing Christ’s righteousness
Christian women who have been abused in childhood often confuse the exhortations and commands in Scripture with the harsh judgments of their abusers. They feel condemned by the passages intended to comfort them. For this reason it is crucially important to build a firm foundation on the indicatives of Scripture (what God has done for believers and what is already true of believers) while simultaneously addressing failures to live in accordance with biblical imperatives (what Christians are to do in Christ). As I worked with Mariana to break down her destructive emotional habits, I constantly returned to the foundation of her possessing Christ’s righteousness. To make any substantial and lasting progress, she had to learn to rest m tins reality instead of her own performance. As this truth became more deeply embedded in Mariana’s thinking, the perfectionism, guilt, and shame that stemmed from her failure to meet her mother’s standard of righteousness gradually lost its power over her emotions. (Stuart Scott and Heath Lambert Ed., Counseling the Hard Cases, p. 55).