‘Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spoke of Judas Iscariot…for it was he who would betray Him..' (John 6:70, 71)
Talk about some hard truth? Jesus accepted that He would be betrayed; that someone close to Him would deliver Him into the hands of people that wanted Him dead. He didn’t pray against it. He simply just accepted it and because He did; He received the grace to be betrayed. And not only the grace to be betrayed, but to be denied by Peter (Luke 22:54-62), and rejected by the people (Mt 27:15-25).So just like ‘There’s an app for that!©’; there’s a grace for that! There’s a grace for being denied, rejected, and betrayed.
I know this may sound strange because as Christians, we’ve only thought of grace in terms of ‘God unmerited favor’ or ‘strength for something good’. But ‘His grace is so sufficient, that His strength is made perfect in weakness.’ (2 Cor 12:9) Even the weakness of wanting to snatch your betrayer by the throat and go ham. I digress.
But grace is needed when you can’t handle something. Because within yourself, you cannot and would not think to put up with; let alone love, bless, do good and pray for your betrayer (Mt 5:44). But John 5:30 tells us that Jesus Himself said, ‘I can of Myself do nothing…because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” The Lord by Himself couldn’t deal with His betrayer, until He knew it was God’s will for Him to and neither can you.
Maybe you’re dealing with the repeated infidelity of a spouse. Perhaps a parent, co-worker, or loved one stole from you, caused you to loose your position or intentionally betrayed your confidence and trust. The first thing you’ve got to do is accept that it happened. Accept the truth and if you can’t, ask God to help you. You cannot move forward without accepting the truth that you, yes you – you bright, brilliant, bossy, and street savvy sista - were betrayed. Because until you do, it’s going to mess with your confidence, heart, mind, soul, and spirit.
Pray this with me: Heavenly Father, please help me. I know this person betrayed me, but I just haven’t been able to accept it because of my pride Lord. I didn’t want to admit that this person got over on me. I didn’t want to accept the fact that I wasn’t as strong or as smart as I thought I was. Lord, help me to accept that I’ve been betrayed and I ask You to make perfect the weakness they saw in me to betray me in the first place. I thank You for this grace. In Jesus’ name.
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