In this episode, I get down and dirty with a topic that triggers all the rule-followers and religious gatekeepers: salvation. Not the flannelgraph-Jesus kind where you prayed the “magic words” at age seven and then spent the next 30 years terrified you did it wrong. Nope. I’m talking about real, liberating, soul-exploding salvation.

This one’s especially for you if you’ve ever stayed in an abusive marriage because you thought God would be mad if you left. If you’re exhausted from trying to please “godly” authority figures who think they are mini Popes. If you’ve prayed the salvation prayer 73 times just to be sure it “took.”

Key Takeaways:

• Belief isn’t a checklist. It’s not about doing the right things, following the right leaders, or avoiding the wrong music. It’s about trusting that Christ already did it all.
• The gift of salvation is already yours. Yes, even if you cuss, leave your abuser, or buy non-organic lettuce.
• Many Christians are still hoping for a salvation that is already theirs. Why? Because we’ve been taught to fear God more than we trust Him. 
• The verse “God hates divorce” has been weaponized. (Psst…it doesn’t say what you think it does, anyway. Listen to find out what the Bible actually says in Malachi.)
• You can experience the joy of salvation the moment you believe it’s real. Like full-body joy. (Really!)

Related Resources:

• If this episode was helpful for you, you’ll love these two episodes, too: “Two Hotel Rooms: One Rescue Mission” and “Praying for a Miracle — When the Miracle Might Be You Walking Away.”

Article: Will God Still Approve of You if You Leave an Emotionally Abusive Marriage?

[Before we get started, I have a free gift for you at the end of this article that also relates to what I’m going to be talking about. Be sure to read to the end to find out how you can get it!]

Let me take you to a hotel room. I’m perched on a bed, surrounded by 20 years’ worth of journal entries: ink-stained prayers, cries for rescue, desperate pleas for God to fix my crumbling marriage.

And in that moment, I make a decision: I’m getting a divorce.

You’d think I’d feel the flames of hell licking at my ankles, right? At least, that’s what my church told me I’d feel. 

But instead? I felt peace. Not the kind of peace that comes from getting all your ducks in a row (mine were scattered and half-drowned), but the kind that floods your soul when you finally believe the truth. For the first time in a long, long time, I believed I was loved. I believed I was safe. I believed I was SAVED. Not someday. Not if I made the right choices. But right then. Right there.

What If Everything You Were Taught About Salvation Is Wrong?

I don’t mean “wrong” like you picked the wrong church denomination. I mean wrong as in… completely upside down.

Growing up, I learned salvation was something you maintain through a rigorous spiritual performance checklist. Read your Bible daily? Check. Submit to your husband? Double check. Stay in an emotionally abusive marriage because “God hates divorce”? Ugh. Triple check.

But that theology? It kept me in bondage. Because when you’re always trying to earn your safety, you’re never safe. (That’s a hostage situation.)

What If Belief, Not Behavior, Is the Point?

We say things like “believe in Jesus and you’ll be saved,” but then we live like salvation depends on how many quiet times we’ve logged or whether we made the “godly” choice.

Here’s the wild idea I want you to sit with: What if Jesus already won you, body and soul, and you just haven’t fully believed it yet?

Not “saved if you behave.” Not “saved if your church approves.” Just saved. Period.

And belief? That’s the switch that turns the light on.

Are You Trying to Earn What’s Already Yours?

I used to think my spiritual life was like a hamster wheel. If I just kept running (homeschooling nine kids, baking whole wheat bread from wheat berries I ground myself, smiling sweetly through the pain) maybe I’d get there. 

I never did.

Here’s what I eventually realized: God wasn’t asking me to work harder. He was asking me to rest.

The truth is, we don’t really believe the gospel. We think Jesus got us 80% of the way there, and now it’s up to us to close the deal with good behavior. But salvation isn’t a team project. It’s a gift. A finished work. It’s already done.

So the question is: Do you believe it’s done?

Could the Church Be Preaching a Gospel of Fear?

Let’s talk about that infamous “God hates divorce” verse, shall we?

That line kept me shackled for years. But the actual context? God wasn’t raging at women filing for divorce. He was condemning abusive men who were violently discarding their wives.

In other words: God was siding with the women.

But churches love weaponizing that verse to keep women trapped. They call it “biblical authority.” I call it spiritual manipulation in a nice pair of Dockers. (Although some preachers are wearing ripped jeans these days. I can’t keep up.)

What Happens When You Finally Stop Striving?

Back in that hotel room, when I finally chose freedom over fear, I expected rejection. And I got it: excommunication, ghosted by family, friendships that evaporated faster than a Southern Baptist altar call.

But do you know what I didn’t expect? Joy. A deep, Holy Spirit-filled joy that told me I was finally standing in the truth. I didn’t need anyone else’s approval because I finally believed I already had God’s.

Are You Still Tied to a Counterfeit Gospel?

I spent years in churches that preached “grace” with their mouths while handing out spiritual to-do lists with their hands. It was obedience dressed up in lipstick and pearls.

If your church teaches that salvation depends on your submission, your performance, or your proximity to a man with a seminary degree, it’s not the gospel. It’s a fear-based knockoff.

When that kind of church excommunicates you? That’s not a punishment. That’s a jailbreak. Haha.

Are You Living Like a Lottery Winner Sleeping in a Tent?

So many Christians walk around with spiritual amnesia. They’re saved, but they don’t know it. They don’t believe it. They’re like lottery winners who never cash the check.

Here’s the truth: You’re not waiting for God to rescue you. You’ve already been rescued.

But until you believe that? You won’t get to experience it.

What If Your Salvation Was Never In Question?

I used to pray the “sinner’s prayer” on loop like a magic spell, just in case it didn’t stick the first 27 times. I thought God’s love was as fickle as the people around me. If they disapproved of me, surely He did too.

But God is not a cosmic authoritarian. He doesn’t change His mind about you based on your latest performance review. If God’s love depended on your obedience, He wouldn’t be God. He’d be a narcissist.

Good news: He’s not.

Could You Finally Be Free If You Believed You Already Are?

There are only two times in my life where I felt the reality of my salvation down in my bones. One was after a gut-wrenching breakup in my 20s. The other was the day I chose freedom over fear and filed for divorce.

In both moments, I believed something radical: That I was already loved. Already safe. Already enough.

And that belief changed everything.

Are You Ready to Believe It Too?

If you’re a Christian woman living in chronic fear, afraid of doing the wrong thing, of displeasing God, of being “too much” or “not enough,” I have a question for you:

Do you actually know you’re saved?

Not just because you’ve memorized the verses. Not because your pastor says so. But deep down in your knower, do you believe you are already loved, already safe, already free?

Because that’s what the gospel says.

If you’ve never experienced that kind of rest, that kind of joy, maybe it’s not because you aren’t saved.

Maybe it’s because you haven’t believed it yet.

Want to Learn How to Live Like You’re Already Free?

That’s what I teach in Flying Free and Flying Higher. Not how to earn your salvation. Not how to become a better wife or more godly woman.

I teach women how to renew their minds: to let go of the fear, the people-pleasing, the performance-based faith. To finally believe what’s already true.

Because belief changes everything.

You’re already saved.

You’re already loved.

You’re already free.

The only question left is… do you believe it?

XOXO,

Natalie

P.S. I’d love to let you listen to the audio version of my book, All the Scary Little Gods for FREE! Just go HERE to sign up!