PROVERBS 29‬:‭25‬ ‭AMP

“The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in and puts his confidence in the Lord will be exalted and safe.”

GOLD NUGGETS ‬‬

Isn’t it natural to expect someone to be vulnerable to further hurt after they have been let down and betrayed?” My answer is to signpost them to Jesus as a role model.
If He can do it, then so can we. We just have to depend on His strength and not ours. Jesus knows better than anyone what it means to be let down and betrayed. In all the pain of His passion, few things would have hurt Him more than being betrayed by His disciples. Did Jesus’s experience of Peter’s denial cause Him to conclude: “Never again will I trust that man”? Moreover, Simon Peter, no doubt feeling disillusioned, returns to his trade as a fisherman, whereupon Jesus pursues him and puts Himself in a position of being hurt once again. He said to Peter, “do you love Me …” using the strong Greek word for love – agape. Peter’s response was: “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You”, using the weaker Greek word for love – philia (John 21:15-16, NK). How would you feel, do you think, if gather courage to say to someone who had already let you down – “Do you love me?” and he or she responded: “Well, I like you.” Would you not feel hurt, wounded, perhaps slightly rejected? I think Jesus must had felt most keenly the thrust of Peter’s words, yet He did not allow it to deter Him from continuing, even pursuing, the relationship. That’s what I mean by vulnerability.
However, Jesus didn’t relent in His love for Peter. May our confident trust in the Lord enable us build bridges that will foment our relationships with others and bring us exaltation and not reproach. SHALOM – Peace: God’s all encompassing blessings to you.