The blessing of betrayal

 

During my first four years in Ireland,  I endured a lot of betrayal.  Now I see, all things truly do work together for our good, even the betrayal of close, trusted friends.  See, we all must have our very own Judas (some of us need 3 or 4 lol). 

Jesus could not have fulfilled his destiny if it had not been for Judas. Because of Judas's betrayal,  someone he loved and trusted, someone he brought into his inner circle,  our Lord was sent to the Cross, where he died on our behalf.  He was murdered by their hate, his blood flowed, his flesh died.

And so too, must we die to the affections and lusts found in us, that is, in our flesh - that Jesus died for. We too must endure our own personal Cross and we too need our Judas to do it. We must crucify pride - pride in self above all,  and having someone dear to us, that we let down our guard around and wholly trusted, someone we love, when they betray our love and trust, the pain can be a wound from which we never recover, or it can be a tool in God's hands to crucify self, till we're able to love them in return for their hate, till we're able to forgive them and love them while they're betraying us, as Jesus did to the very ones crucifying him "FATHER FORGIVE THEM".  The next level to our maturity in Christ is to not only forgive those who persecute and despitefully use us and betray us -  but to ask the Father to forgive them too. This is truly not thinking of self but thinking of others. I'll admit, there have been times in my past when I've forgiven someone thinking " Now the Lord can heap coals of fire on their head", but maturity says " Father forgive them for what they've done to me" - actually caring about their welfare and their future.

We need betrayal because we simply cannot crucify ourselves,  by ourselves.  So remember this the next time you're betrayed - Jesus knew ahead of time, well in advance,  that Judas would betray him - yet he chose to let him into his life anyway.  He may have even known when he chose him - or rather, when the Father picked him to be one of the twelve. Jesus said "FATHER, THESE WHOM YOU GAVE ME" - so, betrayal can be sent to us by our Father - out of love for us, amen.