It seems that everyone around me has health problems at the moment. It’s hard when those we love are hurting. Anxious. Facing scares about their own health and mortality. Conversations like this can leave us feeling helpless. Like we want to somehow lift the worry or the pain away from them. Feeling inadequate because we can’t. That feeling of impotent paralysis to have any effect on the suffering of others is not the whole story.
Most of us have felt
like our trust has been compromised at some point in our lives. Needless to
say, these experiences can be very painful. Perhaps we're still scared to trust
again. We think to ourselves, "Who can I trust? And how do I know I can
trust them?"
But trust is one of
those things that we can't just skip over. It's a crucial ingredient in our
relationship; some call it the foundation. Without it, it's really difficult to
settle-in and just love.
Betrayal is one of
the worst pains a person can encounter. For some, it's even worse than physical
pain. If you have experienced betrayal, you already know this. It's a violation
of a sacred trust that shakes your belief in that person (and sometimes
humanity in general) to the core. When a loved one betrays us, it's as if
everything is stripped away, and we're left exposed to the world. I think it's
why the most evil villains are the ones who betray the hero.
We
serve an amazing God, Who can and will help us overcome the pain of betrayal.
Not only does our Lord and Savior want to give us freedom from this grief, He
is no stranger to it Himself. Jesus encountered the most treacherous betrayal
in all of history when Judas betrayed Him to the chief priests for thirty
pieces of silver
The
pain of betrayal can leave you in a fog, unsure what to do or where to go next,
or if you can ever trust anyone again. This is when you should go to God in
prayer. Cry out God. Tell Him everything. Don't leave anything out. Give Him
the whole story, not just the part you want to believe and tell yourself . Tell
Him all of it. He hears you. He knows what you're going to say already, so just
say it.
Don't
worry about offending Him or hurting His feelings either. God can handle
anything you throw at Him As for me, I shall call upon God, and the Lord will
save me. Evening and morning at noon, I will complain and murmur, and He will
hear my voice."
Pour
out your heart to God, and ask for His strength in forgiving those who have
betrayed you. This is one of those times where believers look so odd to the
world, isn't it? This kind of action goes against what the world expects. Yet
we are commanded to love those who hurt us and pray for them. But when you pray
for the person who betrayed you, don't pray that they'll "get what's
coming to them." ;-)
God
knows all, and He will right all wrongs in the end. Instead, pray that the
person who betrayed you will understand God as you know Him. We have been saved
and are loved unconditionally and undeservedly by God; our job is to show that
love to others even those
who betray us.
Forgiveness
is so important, because without forgiveness bitterness takes root in your
heart. I have seen people who have had bitterness stored up in their heart for years,
and it eats away at them as truly as any disease. When you forgive your
betrayer, you are not only offering them the gift of forgiveness, you are setting
yourself free from holding onto a grudge. You are exchanging a heart of
bitterness and anger for one focused on God's love.
I
know it isn't easy. Forgiving someone who has betrayed you is hard. For
me, part of what's so hard is that I often get this fear in the back of my
heart—fear that if I forgive a person and give my hurt over to God, that maybe
He won't be able to remove my bitterness. But holding onto that fear keeps me
from letting go of the hurt, and that only gets me more hurt in the process.
Even
though it's hard, we have been promised that all things are possible with God The
same God who loved you so much that He gave you the life of His only Son, loves
you enough to take care of this hurt.
Like
that old hymn that says, "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be
happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey." You can trust God and know that He
loves you enough to take care of you. And when you pray for those who hurt you,
pray that they will understand that they are loved in the same way God
loves you.