Have You Been Betrayed?

Hi Friends,

Lately I've found myself walking with a number of people who have been betrayed by someone very close to them. It's heartbreaking, shattering, and can shake one's sense of self and God's love. So, for those who have been betrayed, I offer this encouragement from the pages of Women of the Bible Speak Out . . .

From Sarah's story in Genesis . . .

Our God deems us precious. Valuable. Righteous. Justified. Free. Loved.

All of that is true. And yet, if it’s true, why doesn’t this God who loves us always save us before anything bad happens? ...

I don’t have all the answers. But I do know that God also didn’t spare his only Son.

Jesus trusted his Father in heaven. He loved, he gave, he never sinned . . . and yet he was betrayed. By a kiss, no less! By a sign of love. On the night he was arrested, Judas, one of Jesus’s closest friends, one of the twelve special disciples, a man who walked with Jesus, lived with him, and claimed devotion to him, walked up to Jesus in front of a mob of soldiers with torches and swords, and kissed him. The kiss was to show the mob what man to arrest. And following that kiss, Jesus was arrested, beaten, mocked, and crucified. A kiss is a sign of affection, but behind this kiss was the worst kind of betrayal.

Our God, in Christ, has lived the pain of betrayal. For him, it led to a horrific death on a Roman cross. It led to the most excruciating and cruel execution known to the world at that time. He was beaten, mocked, and crucified because he was betrayed by someone who claimed to love him, someone who betrayed him with a kiss.

Many of us have been there too. There were promises of love, kisses, but love wasn’t love. It wasn’t the real thing. And Jesus shows us how to respond to that kind of betrayal. As he hung on the cross, his last words were, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46). For him, it was a cry of surrendering to death; for us, it can be a daring, courageous cry of surrendering to real love, true love, the love that never abandons, never betrays. The love that knows your name, makes no excuses, gives you the voice of kings, and redeems you. The love that makes you an equal recipient of the promises of God. The love that sets you free from all guilt, all shame, and calls you his own. His princess.

Commit your spirit to him. You can withstand this pain because Jesus has walked this path of betrayal before you, and he walks beside you now. You can flourish. It’s not easy. It’s never easy. But Jesus himself has shown the way and holds your hand as you travel the path of healing your soul. Because he suffered and died and rose from the grave, you can be fully healed.

In the face of betrayal, stand in the love of Christ. Place your hand, place your life, in his. Hear the words of God spoken over you through Abimelech, the king: You are innocent . . . and before everyone you are vindicated. You are seen. You are loved. You are valued.

And no one can take that away.