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. – 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)
Are You Disappointed With God?
Do you ever find yourself disappointed with God? Sometimes it can almost feel like blasphemy to entertain such thoughts. Then to utter our displeasure, one might begin to wonder; does it mean we have no faith? But then again – aren’t we humans full of expectations, wants, and desires?
Recently I found myself with a considerable WALL erected between God and me. Prayer was a struggle, Bible reading non-existent, and God felt so far away. I began to poke at the wall in hopes I could knock it down. When that failed, I tried to climb it with the desire of scaling it so I would never have to dig deep as to why this wall existed. Of course, this method proved to be useless too.
Why the Wall?
It all boiled down to one truth; I was disappointed God had not intervened.
Oh, it might have been a recent tragedy that triggered the beginning of the wall. But then I began stacking one brick upon another with all my lifetime disappointments.
Now it seemed almost as if my faith had helped that wall grow strong. You see I believe without a doubt my God is powerful and capable of anything. I knew he could have prevented the terrible, horrible things which had happened – but he didn’t. He allowed the pain and suffering to occur. It made no human sense.
So like a little child my hand went up as if I could stop God from penetrating my heart and drawing close. After all when someone disappoints don’t you want a little space?
But when we are disappointed with God it doesn’t necessarily mean we have less faith; it merely means we are human with thoughts, feelings, and emotions. We don’t need to judge them right or wrong but instead allow ourselves to recognize and experience them. To enable them to push us toward our Lord, not away.
Remember our thoughts, feelings, and emotions are not facts.
Our disappointment seems to be rooted in our expectations of what we think God should have done in light of knowing his unlimited capabilities.
When You Can’t Express Your Disappointment
Maybe you are disappointed with God’s lack of intervention right now but afraid to communicate it? When this happens most likely, you will find yourself in one of the categories below.
- Running away from God. Holding tight to the idea of how could a good God allow such terrible circumstances.
- Ignoring the emotion all together hoping it will go away. Many times, this results in ugly words, actions, and behaviors towards those that innocently cross your path.
- Building a wall to block God’s presence – at a time you need him more than ever.
You are not alone. These are all common responses when life throws us the unexpected, and we want things to be different. Of course, the best answer is to go right to God. Our questioning and cries can help us put our trust back where it belongs. But sometimes we don’t go to him.
To be honest, building a wall is not my usual response, so when it happened, it took me by surprise. Usually, I run to God with all of my why’s and quickly turn them into trust. But this time was different. I found myself deeply disappointed in the way God had allowed things to play out. My heart was unwilling to go to him quite yet.
One might assume if we voice our disappointment in God’s lack of response or push him away, we no longer exhibit a strong faith in God. However, I would strongly disagree.
Instead, in this time of disappointment, we must rely on the foundation of faith we have built. To lean on what we know about God not what we feel to carry us through. God can handle any disappointment or questions we might have.
Are you willing to voice your disappointment to God?
*This post was originally posted on Embracing the Unexpected
