Sometimes Holy Spirit wants me to write about topics that are hard for me to write about… But when He is persistent in asking me to write it I know that I won’t have ANY peace until I heed His Word. He never yells at me, but His soft, quiet voice persistently repeats His desire over and over and over and over (and over) until I submit to His will. And so, this post is going to be hard to write, but obviously it is a Word that someone needs to hear, so here I go.
The subject is a sensitive one – the Word He was insistent I write about is this:
BETRAYAL
I don’t know if you are someone who has been betrayed or if you are someone who is a betrayer… I am not pointing fingers at you, Holy Spirit knows your heart, He sees your actions so even if you don’t verbally admit to it – you know the truth. Let me help you by being transparent myself – at one point or another in my life, I have experienced BOTH. I have experienced being the subject of betrayal SEVERAL times in my life AND I have also BEEN a betrayer. That’s not something I take pride in admitting. I can share it with you because when it happened, I repented. The pain that I caused that individual is not something I will ever forget. And it is not something I can take back. It is a memory that I cringe at even now – even in knowing that seeking forgiveness from that individual and most importantly from God does not make whatever happened go away. I can never undo what I did and hurting someone is something that makes me cringe time and time again when I think of it. I can also share that there have been several times in my life when I have experienced betrayal. The worst kind of betrayal hits the hardest when it is someone close to you, someone(s) you love. I was blind sighted by those I trusted most of all in my life at that time and if I hadn’t kept my eyes on the LORD, it would have crushed me.
We are responsible for our own choices, our own actions in both situations. The Bible is full of true-life stories of people who have been betrayed, I can name just a few of the many – from the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis, to the true-life story of Joseph (betrayed by his brothers), to David who committed adultery and murder, to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. I have found myself wondering, “How did Jesus do it?” I think about the Scriptures, and I wonder how Jesus kept focused, during the darkest time in His life. Betrayal from within His inner circle… Betrayal from someone who was one of His twelve…
I suppose you can say that because Jesus is God manifested in flesh, you would think:
“Well, Jesus knew what was going to happen.”
Okay, but even so – betrayal is betrayal, and nothing hurts more than it being someone in your inner circle, someone you deeply love – yet still Jesus continued on.
And He was betrayed by a kiss…
A KISS!
And I have only named a few examples that are shown in the Bible. When you betray someone (or they betray you) you are not only betraying and hurting another human being, but you are also betraying God. There are SO many more than that for us to learn from. Key Word here:
LEARN FROM – AND IN LEARNING FROM THEIR EXPERIENCES, NOT TO REPEAT BETRAYAL AND HOW TO ACT WHEN YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED IT
We live in a world that grows darker by the minute, but in living in it we need to realize how much brighter light IS in darkness. We NEED to radiate the light of Christ if we are true followers of His. When Jesus spoke to the people, He said in John 8:12:
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Are you walking in the light? Or are you walking in pitch black darkness? God wants you to know that He has experienced your pain. The Word of God IS the living Word. We have it for a reason. It is a guide to guide us through this life. There is nothing that Jesus has not experienced that He cannot relate to you about – Walk towards the Light.
When someone betrays you or lies to you or hurts you more often than not you cannot see past the pain. There are so many songs that talk about “you always hurt the ones you love” but God didn’t mean life to be that way. We live in a fallen world that grows darker and darker by the moment. We cannot give people our faith, but we can look to Jesus as our example, and we can do what is the total opposite of what we feel like doing…
LOVE THEM
Everything inside of you wants revenge or to hurt them just as deeply as they have hurt you back so they can feel the pain you feel, in fact that is the way of this world. Evening news is filled with violence, filled with “people hurting people” but that is not what God commands us to do. Jesus commands us to LOVE THEM.
LOVE THEM
Go against the grain. Go against the tide of your feelings. Go against the crowd. DO the OPPOSITE of what your feelings are telling you to do – LOVE THEM. Are you feeling annoyed when you read that? It’s okay if you are. Keep praying that God will change your heart. Think about Jesus. Think about how He felt as He was spat upon and ridiculed and jeered at by those He came to save. Yet still He continued…
I will admit it is ONE of the HARDEST things I ever had to do! But when you purpose to live for God, having accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, recognizing that while He was being crucified on that cross, having taken on the sins of the world, WILLINGLY sacrificing His OWN life for YOURS (yes, I believe He saw through the course of the future while He was on that cross you and me. And chose to sacrifice His sin-less life for us, so that we would be redeemed, He became that sacrificial Lamb of God Who took away the sins of the world. SO that being said, when you can’t love them – PRAY.
“Lord – I don’t have it in me, so I need YOU to put it in me. Help me Father. Help ME to love them as YOU love me.”
Because when you think about it – if you are to be honest and look at yourself you can see that there are times when you sinned. You did the opposite of what God wanted you to do. You went your own way. You broke God’s heart and still He loves you. There are times when YOU may be the person who hurt someone else (either knowingly or unknowingly) and you may not even know how many people are having to do the same thing for YOU. God wants us to love, and if you ask Him – He will put His love in your heart and show you how to see the person(s) that have betrayed you through His eyes. That changes everything…
As I said in the beginning of this post, I have experienced both betrayal AND betraying – when I read the Word of God and I see these REAL people who lived, I recognize that I have NO RIGHT to judge them, for I have been the same. The difference is repentance. The difference is choosing to allow Holy Spirit to change our hearts, our minds, our attitudes. Praying that we CAN become Christ-like, for He IS to be our example. Remembering most of all that it is NOTHING but God’s grace, God’s forgiveness, God’s mercy and His love that sustains us ALL the days of our lives. If we let Him…
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