Toxic Relationships: Taking Refuge in Christ

Does your happiness depend on someone else’s affection and presence in your life? Are your thoughts consumed by another person? If so, the relationship has become skewed—get help before it becomes a prison!

Through thirty-one daily readings with reflection questions and practical action steps, Ellen Mary Dykas helps you to strengthen your relationship with Christ—embracing him as your true refuge—and to cultivate godly relationships with others from a place of confidence and peace.

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AUTHOR

Ellen Mary Dykas (MA) is the Director of Equipping for Ministry to Women for Harvest USA. She oversees the gospel-centered teaching and discipleship of women struggling with relational and sexual sin, as well as wives impacted by sexual infidelity. She is a graduate of Covenant Seminary and has a certificate in biblical counseling from CCEF. Ellen has over twenty years of experience in teaching and mentoring others through the Bible, and she is the author of Sexual Sanity for Women: Healing from Sexual and Relational Brokenness, Sexual Faithfulness: Gospel-Infused, Practical Discipleship for Women, and several minibooks including Your Dating Relationship and Your Sexual Past: How Much to Share, Sex and the Single Girl: Smart Ways to Care for Your Heart, and Living Together: Why Marriage is the Best Choice.

ENDORSEMENTS

"Toxic Relationships is a must-read, not only for those who feel the need for relational wisdom, but for anyone engaged in ministry and discipleship. This book reminds us that our hope is not in what people offer, but in what God offers us through the person of his Son, Jesus. I am very grateful for such a biblically rich, helpful resource on such an important topic."
— Hunter Beless, Host, Journeywomen podcast

"Ever since Adam and Eve shared the forbidden fruit, human relationships have been plagued by sin. Sometimes, sin sets us against one another; other times, it pulls us into unhealthy entanglements. These codependent relationships may seem harmless at the beginning, but their ultimate effect is toxic. If you find yourself—or someone you love—trapped in a toxic relationship, Ellen Dykas’s book will be a lifeline. With a counselor’s wisdom and a friend’s sympathy, Dykas brings readers to passages of Scripture that will expose the flaws in our relationships, explain the deep needs of every human heart, and point again and again to the gracious comfort that can be found in Christ alone."
—Megan Hill, Author, A Place to Belong: Learning to Love the Local Church; Editor, The Gospel Coalition

"Ellen speaks hopeful biblical truths to people who desire to be deeply known and loved yet find themselves hurt and empty in their relationships. Each devotional is filled with tender wisdom, helping you to reorder your relational desires so that you find refuge in the most faithful lover of your soul."
—Darby A. Strickland, Counselor, Christian Counseling & Educational Foundation (CCEF); Author, Is It Abuse?

"Ellen Dykas has given the church a wonderful gift in this latest devotional, walking and working us through toxic relationships. The book begins by reminding us that God is our refuge, and it ends with a hopeful reminder that Jesus is our truest comfort and friend. For those who have been hurt, trapped, and betrayed by toxic relationships, Ellen gives way neither to despair nor dismissal but, like a gentle friend, guides us along a path of healing and restoration. This book will be a balm to the hurting heart."
—Jonathan D. Holmes, Founder and Executive Director, Fieldstone Counseling; Pastor of Counseling, Parkside Church, Chagrin Falls, Ohio

"Unlike Job, most of us never experience frontal attacks from Satan. Instead, we are worn down by the saturation of our culture and our own hearts with Satan’s lies. Lies about God. Lies about ourselves. Lies about how God’s world really works. When believed, his lies shrivel our souls, tempt us into toxic relationships, and trap us in life-dominating sins. Ellen Dykas, in Toxic Relationships, lovingly and biblically confronts the lies we are so prone to believe with refreshing and liberating truth from the heart of God himself. Read, reflect, and act. You won’t be disappointed."
—Jim Berg, Professor of Biblical Counseling, Bob Jones University Seminary; Author, Changed into His Image and Quieting a Noisy Soul; Counsel Member, Biblical Counseling Coalition; Executive Director, Freedom That Lasts