Trust in Me. John 14:1

I felt a wave of pain as a mom told me her family had been removed from the church they had attended and worked in for many years. She had no idea why. There had been no trouble up until a month their expulsion, and even then she and her husband had tried to determine what the problem was, but got evasive answers like “Why don’t you tell us…”

As a family who had had their trust betrayed, they felt unique. Unfortunately, they aren’t. I know of many others in similar situations. Some were the pastoral family. Some were congregants. All felt their trust was betrayed. All were concerned about how it would affect their children’s long-term reception of the Christian faith they as parents so treasured.

If you’ve had significant trusts betrayed in your life, you may be coping with it—even years and decades later—in some pretty similar ways. You hide it, or keep people at extreme distances, afraid of being hurt again. You remain numb. You fear trusting again.

You may feel damaged, see yourself as a victim and check out of church or even out of the Christian faith. Or, like many, you might pour yourself into embracing ministry to convince others—or yourself—that you can still be used of God.

You might respond to betrayed trust with anxiety, depression, self-loathing, intimacy problems, fear, indecisiveness, perfectionism, a need to control, eating disorders, or addictions. There’s plenty of examples of this sort of thing on the internet but the point of all of this comes down to this:

Satan doesn’t care how we react to betrayed trust…as long as we don’t turn to Jesus. The enemy knows when we find our identity, security, and dignity in Jesus alone, we can live in victory despite what has been done to us.

That’s why Jesus’ words in today’s verse speak so powerfully to us: “Trust Me.” Perhaps we can start by trusting Him a little, if that’s all we can do. One of the most common ways God builds our trust in Him is by being faithful over and over. We see Him faithful in the little things and are empowered to trust Him in bigger things. Here’s some truths God teaches us to help us trust Him:

I can trust God loves for me. He loves me deeply and completely and isn’t the one behind my trust being betrayed (Jer 31:3).
I can trust God’s sense of justice to take care of ‘getting even’ (Ps 103:6).
I can forgive others because I have been forgiven and can pray for those who betrayed my trust. I can bless them. (Matt 6:14-15; Luke 6:28).
I can use what the enemy meant for evil to bring glory and praise to God (Gen. 50:20).

You might be wondering why you (the victim) should be the one doing all this forgiving and blessing. Because when we do this, we are being like God Himself, who loved us even when we didn’t deserve it. Because when we bless, a blessing is returned to us. We reap what we sow.

Peter wrote: “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing” (1 Pet 3:9). (By the way, this works both ways: When we curse others inherit a curse.)

In addition, when we bless those who curse us, we break the cycle of anger and hatred. This was Paul’s counsel to the Roman believers: “‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:20-21).

I will not let the enemy or any of those he is using in my life scrounge me out of my intimacy with Jesus. Just not going there.