You can trust God after someone has hurt you because his character doesn’t change, even when people fail you. God sees your pain, stays close to the brokenhearted and is able to bring good out of evil without ever excusing it. Like Joseph in the Bible, you can hold on to who God is while you heal, and let your pain draw you closer to his grace.
God Sees You in Your Pain
If you’ve been betrayed, mistreated or abused, it’s natural to wonder where God was. Some women carry wounds from a parent, a spouse, a friend or even a church leader, and the hurt can shake their faith to its core. If that’s you, please hear this first: what was done to you was wrong, it was not your fault and God is not asking you to pretend it didn’t happen.
Psalm 34:18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
God doesn’t keep his distance from wounded people. He draws near. Trusting him doesn’t mean you have to feel fine or have all the answers. It can start with something as simple as an honest prayer: “God, I’m hurting, and I don’t understand, but I’m bringing this to you.” If you are in danger or are being abused right now, trusting God also means reaching out for help, getting to safety and telling someone who can protect you.
Joseph Trusted God’s Character
Few people in the Bible were wronged as badly as Joseph. His own brothers threw him into a pit and sold him into slavery. Later he was falsely accused of assault by his master’s wife and thrown into prison, where a man he had helped promptly forgot about him. For years, it looked like evil was winning.
Yet Joseph refused to let what others did define what he believed about God. Eventually God raised him to a position of leadership in Egypt, where he saved countless lives during a severe famine, including the lives of the very brothers who had betrayed him. When they finally stood before him, terrified, Joseph said something remarkable.
Genesis 50:19-20 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Joseph didn’t call the evil good. He named it plainly: you intended to harm me. But he trusted that God was bigger than their sin. He also left justice in God’s hands rather than taking revenge. That’s the heart of trusting God after being hurt. You hold on to the truth of who he is, even when you can’t yet see how your story will turn out.
Pain Can Draw You Closer to God’s Grace
Pain has a way of stripping away the things we lean on. When people let us down, we discover just how much we need God. That doesn’t make suffering good, but it does mean suffering doesn’t have to be wasted. The apostle Paul learned this firsthand when he begged God to take away an affliction that tormented him.
2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
God’s grace meets you right in the middle of your weakness. Healing usually takes time, and it often happens with help from a wise pastor, a trusted friend or a Christian counselor. Along the way, you may find that the God who seemed far away was carrying you all along. And because Jesus himself was betrayed, falsely accused and wounded, you can be sure he understands exactly what it feels like.
The Takeaway
You can trust God after being hurt because his character stays the same when people fail you. He is close to the brokenhearted, he can bring good out of what others meant for harm and his grace is enough to carry you as you heal.
