When trust is broken, how do you earn back that trust?

Sometimes this seems impossible. Even if a person has forgiven you for betraying them, they can take years to recover from the incident -- or maybe never. God has provided a way, however, to make the restoration of trust possible, and in a shorter period of time.

First of all, we need to deal with the hurt and sorrow in our own heart. When you have blown it, committed a serious sin against another person, a wall is erected. As Proverbs says, a person deeply offended, and in this case seriously betrayed, is harder to be won than a city. A feeling of sorrow, grief, and helplessness can fill our hearts in such situations.

We must lay our pain down to Jesus, and call for Him to start by healing our heart. We can declare, "I speak to my heart and call for healing by the stripes of Jesus." We then pray shalom upon the person injured, that he or she is healed by the stripes of Jesus, and that his or her heart will be opened again. We call on Jesus as Restorer.

It is important to use the appropriate verse of Scripture for each situation. Here are some powerful Scriptures you can speak over yourself and over the person you betrayed:

Isaiah 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

Jesus "came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him" (John 1:11). They betrayed the One who came to save them, torturing Him with 39 stripes from a merciless whip that tore His flesh. All of us have sinned and thus caused those stripes to be inflicted upon Jesus. We can claim healing for ourselves and others by those stripes (I Pet. 2:24).

Psalm 80:3 says, "O God, restore us And cause Your face to shine upon us, and we will be saved."

Boaz and Ruth symbolize Jesus and His bride, the church, so we can claim restoration by quoting Ruth 4:14: "Blessed is the [Eternal] who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel. 15 May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age…"

Only God can restore a relationship broken by betrayal. All things are possible with Him.