Years ago, in a formative season of ministry, Jan and I were wronged by another pastor. We were betrayed. I remember the night we got the phone call telling us what this person was doing and saying about us publicly. We were hundreds of miles away. We felt helpless. We had trusted this person. His act of betrayal wounded us deeply.
I remember hanging up the phone that night. We were stunned by the betrayal. I took Jan by the hand and said, “We need to pray.” We got on our knees and began to tell God all the pain we were feeling at that moment. It felt like someone had impaled us with a poisoned spear.
Amidst the pain of betrayal, a supernatural impartation came to us from God. He gave us one of the greatest spiritual survival gifts we had ever received. He gave us the gift of praise and blessing in the face of betrayal. What followed that initial betrayal released a process of healing in the betrayer’s heart and an eventual restoration. For years until the restoration each time we thought of what the man did to us, we worshipped God and blessed our betrayer.
“Betray” and “traitor” come from the same Latin word. The word means to “lead someone to their enemy by treachery.” A traitor is someone who betrays a trust. Betrayal is an act of spiritual treachery.
Luke described Judas as “one who sits among us as a friend.” Betrayal hurts so much because it takes us by surprise after we have extended trust to someone. The setting of the Last Supper was an intimate and safe environment. We don’t expect betrayal to happen in such intimate settings.
We are told that on the night of Judas’ betrayal, he left the intimate gathering of the disciples to betray the Lord. His act of betrayal took him “out into the night” (John 13:30) to sell his relationship with Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Betrayal will take a person into a spiritually dark place where they conduct business with the enemy. This is true for both the betrayer and the betrayed if we do not align our hearts with the will of God instead of the pain of the betrayal.
Guard each act of betrayal. They hold important truths to be discovered. Embedded somewhere in each act of betrayal is the purpose of God waiting to be discovered. Without the hope of that discovery, we will be devastated by betrayal and join our betrayer in a dark place of pain and unforgiveness.
For Jan and me, it was our immediate focus and worship of God that led us back into the light. That event happened over forty years ago, and it has protected us from joining in the darkness of betrayal ever since.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Garris Elkins
Featured Image by Євген from Pixabay
