Summer Reading - Captivating - Chapter 5

Welcome back to our summer book reading of Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul by John & Stasi Eldredge. This week we are discussing chapter 5 titled
A Special Hatred. Feel free to read and comment, even if you don’t have the book.

In this chapter Stasi tells her own painful story. She was wounded by her father and turned to alcohol, drugs, and men to fill the empty space. This path brought only more wounding, reinforcing the messages from her childhood.

“Hide your heart. You are a disappointment. You are worthless. No one cares. No one wants to care. You are alone.”

Do any of these messages ring true in your heart and mind?

Beauty is dangerous
So many women have been assaulted, beaten, raped, controlled. Young woman being sold into sex slavery. Baby girls being left to die.

Where does such hatred come from?

“Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Lucifer was created beautiful. In his own beauty, pride entered in. Now the Evil One hates beauty and tries to destroy it – especially Eve and her daughters.

“You won’t understand your life as a woman until you understand this:

You are passionately loved by the God of the universe.
You are passionately hated by His Enemy.

…for there is One greater than your Enemy. One who has sought you out from the beginning of time. He has come to heal your broken heart and restore your feminine soul.”

My thoughts
My youthful beauty was dangerous because I was so naive. And I was assaulted. I cried through this chapter. It never occurred to me the spiritual battle of the Devil trying to destroy femininity. His lies and deceit like Wormtongue.

God has been in the process of healing my heart all these years. It has been one layer after another, reaffirming His perfect love for me.


Your Turn
Where has your emptiness and longing led you?
What has God rescued you from?