Whenever We Get Disappointed With God
Whenever we get disappointed with God, we often have a hard time believing that He really loves us. Have you ever had those moments where God didn’t act like you thought He should have? Dan Allender said, “Love often succumbs to a cold death on the sharp rocks of disappointment.”
I remember a woman from another church several years ago. She would tie the preacher up for 15 minutes after the service at least a couple of times a month. She always had a problem or an issue she was facing. One Sunday, long ago, I had the opportunity to fill in for the pastor. I had preached on trusting God. At the end of the service, guess who got a hold of me for at least 20 minutes. This lady began to share her story with me. Her husband had left her several years before. She prayed and prayed though believing that God would heal and restore her marriage. Eventually, the divorce was final and her ex-husband married another woman. She was heart broken and incredibly disappointed with God. As a result, she was at a stand still spiritually. She was going in circles but kept coming back to the same place. God didn’t do what she wanted Him to do. And her disappointment with God was greatly affecting her relationship with Him.
During our times of disappointment we think “If God is all powerful He could; and if He loved me, He would.” He doesn’t always do it our way though, so we are tempted to think that there must be something wrong with God or with us. Often times we just come to the conclusion that God doesn’t love us.
When we are disappointed with God, we often lose our ability to trust Him. We wonder if He is really good? As we hold onto these thoughts and feelings, we can’t really receive God’s love. We also become angry with God in the process.
If we hold onto our disappointment, we will think that God has abandoned us and forsaken us.
On the cross, Jesus took our sin upon Himself. The bible says He literally became sin. Scripture lets us know that God can’t look upon sin. He must turn his face away from it. And as the Son of God took our sin upon him and became sin, the Father had to turn his face away from his son in that moment.
From the cross, Jesus cried out the cry of dereliction. He said, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” As he took our sins upon him, Jesus knew what is was like to be forsaken of God in that moment. He was forsaken in that moments so we would never have to be.
There are theological mysteries that we will never fully solve here on earth. But God’s love is no mystery. He settled the love issue on the cross. There are times you may feel God doesn’t love you, but it’s not true. Look at the cross. Remember the cross where Jesus was forsaken for you, so you would never be forsaken.
If you have struggled with disappointment and it has left you in a place where you have been hurt with God and angry with him, Could you forgive Him? Could you forgive God? I don’t think God did anything wrong. He never has, and he never will. But as humans, there are times he just doesn’t act like we think he should. And we need to let God go and forgive Him and then ask him to forgive us for our lack of trust.
If you don’t, then that disappointment may keep you from the love of God. And that’s the Word.
