Narcissist Got Away With It? God's Plan for Your Vindication

covert narcissism effects of abuse narcissistic relationships recovering after a narcissistic relationship Feb 04, 2026

They got away with it.

The lies. The manipulation. The destruction of your reputation. And they're walking around like nothing happened. Still playing the victim. Still fooling everyone.

Meanwhile, you're left picking up the pieces of relationships they destroyed. And you're wondering: Where is God? Why isn't He defending me? Why does it feel like evil is winning?

If that's where you are right now, this article is for you.

Because here's the truth: God hasn't forgotten. He hasn't abandoned you. And He has a plan for your vindication.

But His plan doesn't look like what you think. And His timing doesn't work the way you want. And that's actually a good thing.

In this article, I'm going to show you the final three steps in God's battle plan—the steps that will carry you through the waiting period and position you for the vindication God has promised.

What You'll Learn

In this article, you're going to learn:

3 steps in God's battle plan for your vindication
Why God's timing is different from yours—and what to do while you wait.
The one prayer that changes everything when you feel like God isn't moving fast enough.

Why Vindication Takes Time

Before we get into the final three steps, I need to prepare you for something that's hard to hear: Vindication rarely happens quickly.

I wish I could tell you that if you follow these steps, God will clear your name in a month. But that's not how it usually works.

Joseph was falsely accused of assault and thrown into prison. He spent 13 years there before God vindicated him.
David was anointed as king, but he spent years running from Saul—years of being slandered, hunted, and misunderstood—before he took the throne.
Job lost everything—his wealth, his health, his children, and his reputation. His friends accused him of secret sin. And it wasn't until the very end of the book that God vindicated him and restored what was lost.

So why does God wait? Because the waiting period is not wasted time. It's refining time. It's the season where God is doing something in you that's more important than what He's doing for you.

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes." - Psalm 37:7

God is not slow. He's strategic. And His vindication is always worth the wait.

God's 7-Step Battle Plan for Your Vindication

This article covers the final three steps of a 7-step battle plan. The first four steps were covered in a previous article, but here they are for quick reference:

Grieve the Loss
Recognize the Spiritual Battle
Starve the Fire
Document Truth

Now, let's move into the final three steps.

Step 5: Build Where You Are Welcome

The fifth step is this: Stop chasing people who have withdrawn, and start investing in people who are present.

When your reputation is destroyed, your instinct is to focus on the relationships you've lost. You replay conversations in your mind. You wonder what you could have said differently. You grieve the people who believed the lies. But here's what God wants you to do: Let them go.

Jesus said something radical in Matthew 10:14. He told His disciples, "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet."

Shake the dust off your feet. That's not bitterness. It's not giving up. It's accepting reality and moving forward. Some people won't hear your side. They have already made up their minds. If they are talking to you, it may not be because they are looking to understand your side of things. It could simply be to relay to you what the narcissist told them, and they have no interest in hearing your side.

God doesn’t look favorably upon that behavior. The Bible says, “Whoever answers before listening is both foolish and shameful.” (Proverbs 18:13). This is a convicting verse both ways. If we want people not to be so quick to judge us without all our facts, we need to do the work in ourselves to suspend judgment on others when we don’t have all the facts on them. It is so easy to judge, but God says that when we do so without all the facts, it comes back to bite us.

So moving on. Build where you’re welcome. Proverbs 18:24 says, "One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

Focus on the friends who stick closer than a brother. Invest in the people who asked for your side of the story. Pour into the relationships that are still healthy.

And if you need to, build a new community. The Bible calls this "chosen family." Ruth left her entire community in Moab to follow Naomi to a new land. And God gave her a new family, a new future, and a new legacy. Sometimes God uses the destruction of old relationships to make room for new ones.

Listen, there might be a huge vacuum in your life where precious relationships used to be, and that can be so painful, especially if you invested and gave a lot. It's not easy to replace people you loved dearly. But trust in the Lord. If you are going through this, know that God is also at work. He is working through the rubble. Isaiah 61:3 says: “To all who mourn in Israel he will give: beauty for ashes; joy instead of mourning; praise instead of heaviness. For God has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory.”

If there is a big, empty space in your life, I suspect God is making room for new relationships and a completely new, different community. Don't fight that. Trust it. If it’s happening, it’s because God is moving you towards your destiny. There are people who need to be in your life right now, and it would not happen any other way.

Action Step: Make a list of the people who are still present. Reach out to them. Invest in them. Build where you are welcome. And release the rest.

Step 6: Surrender Your Reputation to God

The sixth step is the hardest, and it's the most important: Surrender your reputation to God.

This doesn't mean you do nothing. It means you do your part—walk in integrity, set boundaries, document the truth—and then you release the outcome to God.

Here's the story that changed my understanding of this.

Joseph was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife. She lied. She claimed he assaulted her. And Joseph was thrown into prison for a crime he didn't commit.

And here's what's stunning: Joseph didn't defend himself. He didn't launch a campaign to clear his name. He didn't try to convince Potiphar or the other prisoners that he was innocent.

He just... waited. And worked. And trusted God. And 13 years later, God vindicated him in the most public, undeniable way possible. Joseph went from prisoner to second-in-command of Egypt in a single day. And everyone who had believed the lies saw the truth.

But here's the key: Joseph's vindication didn't come because he fought for it. It came because he surrendered it.

"Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun." - Psalm 37:5-6

Notice: God will do this. Not you. God. Your job is integrity. God's job is vindication. And here's the hard truth: Some vindication happens in this life. Some happens in eternity.

Luke 16 tells the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Lazarus suffered his entire life. He was poor, sick, and ignored. And when he died, he was carried by angels to Abraham's side. The rich man, who lived in luxury and ignored Lazarus, went to hell. Lazarus's vindication didn't come in his lifetime. It came in eternity. I'm not saying your vindication won't come in this life. I'm saying you have to be willing to trust God even if it doesn't.

Because here's the truth: Your peace cannot depend on other people's opinions. It has to depend on God's truth.

When you surrender your reputation to God, something powerful happens. You stop giving the narcissist power over you. You stop letting their lies steal your joy. You stop making your peace dependent on vindication.

And that's when you're truly free.

Step 7: Pray for Justice, Not Just Peace

The seventh and final step is this: Pray for justice.

Now, I know this makes some people uncomfortable. We've been taught to pray for peace, to pray for blessing, to "just forgive and move on."

But here's the truth: It is not ungodly to pray for justice. It's biblical.

The Psalms are full of prayers for justice. They're called imprecatory Psalms, and they're raw, honest prayers where people ask God to hold their enemies accountable.

Psalm 109 is one of them. David prays, "Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy; let an accuser stand at his right hand... May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership."

That's in the Bible. God inspired that prayer. Which means it's not sinful to pray for justice.

Psalm 137 is even more intense. The Israelites, in exile, pray for God to hold Babylon accountable for what they did.

And in Revelation 6:10, the martyrs in heaven cry out, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"

Even in heaven, they're praying for justice. So here's what I want you to understand: There's a difference between revenge and justice. Revenge says, "I want them to suffer because I'm hurt." Justice says, "I want them held accountable so they stop hurting others." Revenge is about you. Justice is about God's righteousness. And here's something that might surprise you: Praying for justice includes praying for the narcissist's repentance.

Because true repentance would be their ultimate healing. It would break the demonic stronghold in their life. It would set them free.

So when you pray for justice, you're not praying for harm. You're praying for truth to be revealed. You're praying for accountability. You're praying for God to intervene.

Here are some prayers you can pray:

"Lord, I ask You to expose every lie that has been spoken against me. Bring the truth to light in Your perfect timing."
"Father, I pray for [person's name]. I pray that You would break the spiritual strongholds in their life and bring them to repentance and healing."
"God, I release my reputation into Your hands. I trust You to vindicate me. I will not fight this battle in my own strength."
"I bind the spirit of division, gossip, and slander in Jesus' name. I declare that no weapon formed against me will prosper."
"Lord, contend with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me. I trust You to be my defender."

Pray these prayers daily. Pray them with faith. And watch God move.

Special Topics

Before we close, I want to address two things that a lot of you are dealing with.

What if the church is the place where the smear campaign is happening?

This is one of the most painful situations. When church leaders believe the narcissist. When your faith community becomes unsafe.

Here's what you need to know: God sees it. And He will hold them accountable.

3 John 1:9-10 talks about a church leader named Diotrephes who loved to be first, refused to welcome believers, and spread malicious nonsense about the apostles.

This is not a new problem. It happened in the early church. And God dealt with it.

If your church is unsafe, you have permission to leave. You're not abandoning God. You're protecting yourself. And God will lead you to a new community where you can heal.

What if bitterness is creeping in?

This is the danger of the waiting period. Hebrews 12:15 warns, "See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble."

There's a difference between righteous anger and sinful bitterness. Righteous anger says, "This is wrong, and I want justice." Bitterness says, "I will never forgive, and I want revenge."

Guard your heart. Keep praying. Keep surrendering. Don't let the waiting period turn into a breeding ground for bitterness.

Bringing It All Together

Over the course of these two articles, we've covered God's 7-step battle plan:

Grieve the loss
Recognize the spiritual battle
Starve the fire
Document the truth
Build where you are welcome
Surrender your reputation to God
Pray for justice, not just peace

Here's what I want you to remember: The narcissist may have gotten away with it for now. But God's justice is certain. And His vindication is coming.

"A false witness will not go unpunished, and whoever pours out lies will perish." - Proverbs 19:9

That's a promise. Hold onto it.

Click here to watch the video version of this article.

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