Betrayal Barrier

Betrayal is a hard pill to swallow. This is medicine that satan can use to further his agenda. This kind of medicine can poison the soul and destroy relationships.

I have a few questions I would like you to think about.
* Has a friend or a member of your family ever betrayed you?

• How did it make you feel?

• How did you respond to the situation?

• Did you lash out at the person or did you hold the anger inside and let it fester resentment?

• At any point did revenge ever enter your mind?

It is easy to respond with anger and resentment in these situations. But what kind of response should we have as Christians? The ideal and the thing we should do is to respond with kindness out of love but this is easier said than done.

There were many people in the Bible that experienced the betrayal barrier in their lives, even God Himself.

Lucifer betrayed God along with one third of the angels, and then Adam and Eve betrayed Him. And don’t forget the scores of people all through the ages that have betrayed Him also.

Joseph’s brothers and then Potiphar’s wife betrayed Joseph

King David was betrayed by his son Absalom.

Paul was betrayed by John, also called Mark, and on and on it goes.

What was the ultimate betrayal? It was when Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Now don’t forget the multitudes that have followed after Judas down through the years that also betrayed Jesus.

After it was all said and done what was Jesus’ response? "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

Being betrayed by anyone is a horrible thing to experience. It is not easy to forget and it is even harder to forgive. Being betrayed by someone you love, someone you have prayed for, someone that is in your family, or a fellow believer is even harder. Think of who Jesus was betrayed by, some were fellow Jews and some were those that He grew up with. There were many types of people who betrayed Jesus and some were very religious people.

I have personally felt betrayed by many people down through the years ~ some in the church and some out of the church. One thing I have learned over the years is that it doesn’t matter who the person is or what their title is they may betray you someday.

Question: have you ever betrayed someone? Maybe you shared something that a friend asked you not to share with anyone else. Maybe out of anger you said unkind things that you wish you never said. Maybe you have acted like a friend to someone just to take advantage of that person.

Have you ever lied intentionally about someone just to cause trouble for that person? Or maybe you just wanted to make yourself look good so you ran your mouth about someone, hurting their reputation.

All these things and more would cause someone to feel betrayed

If you are guilty of any of these things then you need to be forgiven also and it should make it easier for you to forgive someone else. If we live long enough we will all need to be forgiven and we will all need to forgive? If Jesus was willing to forgive us when we betrayed Him then we need to be willing to forgive when we have felt betrayed. If you don’t think you are guilty of betraying Jesus then you are only fooling yourself. We have all betrayed Jesus because of the sin in our lives. So let’s let Jesus be our example and let’s get in the habit of always forgiving others. Then we will be pleasing God and receive His blessings and we will be set free. Praise the Lord.

If you are reading this message and would like to have a personal relationship with Jesus and have your sins forgiven you might want to repeat this prayer.  Heavenly Father I am guilty of sin and I would like to be forgiven. I am truly sorry for my sins and I am trusting you to cleanse me and wash me whiter than snow through the blood of Jesus, your precious Son. Please take over my life and change me into your image and likeness and I thank you for doing this. I pray these things in Jesus precious name, amen.

If you truly are sorry and are serious, then welcome to the family of God. Now go and find a Bible teaching church and get a Bible and start reading it. You might want to pray before you start reading and ask the Lord to allow His precious Holy Spirit to teach you and bring all the things back to your remembrance whatsoever Jesus teaches you. And don’t forget to thank and praise God for helping you.

May God bless you!