This is a message from Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.

We pray that it will encourage you in your walk of faith.

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Youssef or leading the way,

please visit lTW.org.

I was speaking with a woman who told me about her darkness of depression that she's going through,

about pain and a horrible feelings that she is experiencing.

And as I probed a little further, it became very apparent to me that her deep emotional pain stems from a severe feeling of betrayal.

This woman for 25 years or more, nearly 30 years, she dedicated her life for the upbringing of her three orphan nieces. She took care of them as they were growing up.

She tutored them. She comforted them. She motivated them. She encouraged them. She did all that

as she could. All her life committed to just helping those three girls to grow up.

And as the way the world is, all over, not just in this country, when they grew up and they got

married and they got busy with their lives, they literally, whether intentionally or not,

turned their back on her. And her confusion gave way to anger, which turned inward and developed into a full-blown depression.

And I could not help but think that betrayal and rejection can cut a wide gaping wound,

that betrayal and ingratitude can truly create a deep and painful legacy in one's life.

I could not help but think that betrayal and unfaithfulness can hurt more than a shotgun wound. Probably there is no worse feeling than a rejection of love. Probably there is no worst agony than a betrayal of a trust. Probably there is no more demoralizing experience than self-giving

and self-sacrificing that are met with indifference and non-appreciation.

And I could think of no better example of a human illustration of this type

of betrayal, this type of ingratitude, this type of unfaithfulness, than the life of the prophet

Josea. This man of God, this prophet of God, Josea, called by God to speak to a generation that has turned its back on God.

Josea was called of God, not just to preach in words, but to experience what God is experiencing with unfaithfulness.

Experience what God is experiencing.

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