Christian author and speaker Josh McDowell spoke at the recent Together 2016 Christian gathering and revival in Washington, D.C. where he shared how God helped him to heal from sexual abuse he experienced as a child.
“As I share, you need to realize you meet people every day just like me,” McDowell told the huge crowd gathered on the National Mall.
He then went on to share how he was repeatedly raped and abused as a child by a man his mother hired as a housekeeper. When he told his mother about the abuse, however, she didn’t believe him and instead beat him.
For years, McDowell was scarred by these childhood experiences.
When McDowell went to college, a group of Christians told him about God’s love for him, but he had a hard time processing the idea of a loving heavenly father, since the men and father figures in his life had been abusive.
Later, McDowell did accept Christ, and was led on a road to healing when he told a spiritual mentor about his childhood experiences.
McDowell told the crowd that he not only needed Jesus, but, "I needed a group of men around me...who would be there at 2 o' clock in the morning when I wanted to end it all."
Today, God has brought McDowell out of that dark time in his life and used him to make a great impact on the world through his writing, speaking, and evangelism.
Publication date: July 18, 2016
