Devastation to Restoration

A Devotional Guide for Your Healing Journey

By SUSAN JOY SIMKINS

Am I damaged beyond repair? Will my life be forever limited by hurt and dysfunction? Is there hope for me? This devotional guide is for every anguished heart who has asked such questions.

Dr. Susan Joy Simkins spent decades hiding childhood trauma, a predator pastor’s statutory rape, and devastating life consequences before a heavenly Father’s gentle healing led to sharing her redemptive journey in Divine Reversal. To fellow “walking wounded” asking if they too can experience divine reversal, she offers a resounding yes!

There is nothing God’s love cannot heal—not abuse, betrayal, abandonment, depression, self-hatred, loss. A “man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3), Jesus Christ came to this earth for the express purpose of making whole those who have been crushed and shattered. His victory raises brand-new questions. What if the bad from your past became a distant memory? What if brokenness no longer defined you but wholeness radiated through you? What if devastating turned into amazing?

Devastation to Restoration combines biblical teaching and practical illustrations that will equip you to move past traumatic devastation into abundant life and grand restoration. As you work through these devotionals, may you be challenged to own your hurt, traverse the rough places, and experience freedom on the other side. Above all, may you encounter Jesus as the Healer of your broken heart.

Praise For Devastation to Restoration

“In my role as Director of the Child Sexual Abuse Institute of Ohio, I have been asked to review and endorse at least 16 books. I have written two myself, with a third underway. I share that to make this point. There is no better resource I could recommend to my own clients than Devastation to Restoration. For those who have moved from victim to survivor to overcomer yet still struggle with spiritual blocks to God, this is ‘the one’ I’d recommend because it focuses on ‘THE ONE.’ I began reading it with ‘eyes’ to see how it could help heal the trauma of clients I counsel. I ended it with a greater vision and a deeper understanding of my own spiritual journey.

Susan’s writing passes on wisdom, growth, and healing to the next generations. Her pen is like an arrow that hits its mark. Her unrelenting honesty and transparency about her own woundedness allow the reader to look at their own. Her courage and giftedness in sharing such raw material will inspire you to believe you can too. I found the quotes at the beginning of each chapter, referring back to her book Divine Reversal, helpful and encouraging.

Susan’s chapters on forgiveness are the best I have come across in forty years of doing this work. Her ability to see both its necessity and its timing is crucial. Forgiveness is the area where I see both my fields, psychology and religion, failing. At the risk of stereotyping and being simplistic, one area may think it is unimportant or, at times, even harmful. The other pushes it too soon in the healing journey without recognizing how that can, in itself, be a form of spiritual abuse and can do even more damage to the survivor. Often, the people I counsel have come from one field of thought in counseling, telling them religion is what has made them sick and supporting their rage, and even at times enabling their dysfunction as justified because of what they have been through. Or they have been told by the church they don’t need counseling, even at times suggesting it is sinful and encouraging them to ‘pray more’, or ‘have more faith’. Emphasizing its importance, Susan wisely devotes several chapters to forgiveness. But just as wisely, she positions this topic toward the end of the book, after a strong foundation of healing has already taken place.

By sharing her own struggles, Susan, like Jesus, ‘goes before you’ to make a way. You will be able to see where you were once blind and be able to walk where you were crippled. You will have ears to hear not just the words of your counselor or pastor, but most importantly, God’s.”

—VICTORIA KEPLER DIDATO, MA, LPC, LSW, DAPA

Director, Child Sexual Abuse Institute of Ohio
Author of One in Four
Author of Treatment Issues for Survivors and Offenders