God is Unchanging | Depending on God When Others Let You Down

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Happy Monday my friends! It’s been a while since my last Monday Musings of Grace but this has been on my heart the last few weeks and I’m ready to chat with y’all about it. Maybe. We’ll see how it goes. 😉 It’s fairly difficult for me to share these personal topics but I hope that God can use it to help someone. Today I want to talk about the character of God in contrast to the character of people.

Have you been let down before?

Ok friends. Raise your hand if you’ve ever been let down by a person. (Who actually raised your hand? 😉 ) Now, raise your hand if you feel like you’ve been let down by God. I’m guessing there were many of you who raised your hand twice.

I’ve had many conversations with people who have turned from God because they were let down. By God, they say. But you know what? More often than not, after talking it out, digging deep, and really dissecting the emotion behind the betrayal, usually our fellow human beings are the culprit.

The Character of People

How many of you have left the Christian faith because of people, but may have blamed God instead? Be honest. I feel like I’m treading in deep waters here because this is certainly a controversial topic. But I think it’s important for each of us to think about.

Recently, our family left the church we’ve attended and loved for the majority of our lives. It was devastating. It still is, some days. The reason we left is inconsequential to today’s Musing but upon leaving we were hurt by many of our closest friends. People who we’ve known for years and years and considered family.

I’ll be honest, it’s hard to go to church now. A place we once would have considered our second home is now a place of anxiety and unease. (And we aren’t even in the same church anymore!)

There is a fear of being betrayed again. There is a fear of getting close to people again and opening ourselves up to hurt and the same utter sadness we’ve dealt with for the last 7 months. Because of sin. Because of relationships that are unreconciled. Because of our past experiences.

But not because of God.

Our story is complicated, as I’m sure yours is, but where our stories most likely are the same is that we were both hurt by people. Truth be told, if we’re honest with ourselves, we probably hurt someone too. There’s always two sides to a story.

You see, it all comes down to the fact that the character of a person is never constant. People change. People sin and fail. People are imperfect and incapable of perfection. People will let us down.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21″

Yes, people are also good and loving and kind. But no one is perfect. Yes, relationships are important and worthy of pursuit, but they will never be without trial. And yes, forgiveness and grace are imperative, but sometimes it takes awhile to get to that point because, you guessed it, we aren’t perfect. On the other hand…

The Character of God

God. Does. Not. Change. God doesn’t fail us. The character of God is unmovable, unchangeable, and completely perfect.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews 13:8″

If you aren’t a believer then I’m guessing you have about 100 arguments for those statements. I totally get that. Honestly, I do. What I believe takes a lot of FAITH. But I challenge you to show me any other religion or belief that requires less faith than mine. Even atheists have faith that there is no God. That is a completely different topic, but something worth thinking about.

Now, if you are a believer who has been “burned by the church” then I challenge you with this: Have you lived your life equating betrayal by “the church” or by Christians the same as betrayal by God?

Have you walked away from the Christian faith thinking that God was the problem? Because He isn’t. Even as I sit here typing this, unable to attend a church without unease and anxiety, I can honestly say that God is not the problem.

So what do we do?

We keep the Faith. We forgive. We pray. We push through the anxiety and the hurt and the fear. We remember that God is an unchanging God whose love for us is greater than any person’s love ever could be.

Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. Psalm 119:90″

We also have to be ok not knowing all the answers. And we have to understand that healing will probably take longer than we want it to. Much longer, in fact, for many of us.

However, don’t misunderstand me. I don’t believe the healing process is simple. It isn’t a “sit back and give it time and all will be well again” mindset. It takes work. It takes intentionality in our prayer life, in our own offering of forgiveness, and in our own humility.

Most importantly, it takes turning to God for our peace and understanding. You never know how He will use your story. Hopefully He uses mine to help someone today.

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations. Deuteronomy 7:9″

Bottom line, if you’ve walked away from God because of what someone (or some church) has done to you, then I encourage you to do a couple of things. And remember, though I haven’t walked away from God I still struggle with some of these issues so I am talking as much to myself right now as anyone else. So let’s do it together.

1. Pray. Talk to God about your hurt and about how to forgive and move forward. Listen to the Spirit and seek healing. Don’t go on brooding because that will never bring about peace and understanding.
2. Trust. Let someone in again. If you’ve put up barriers to protect yourself from being hurt again then start to peel back those layers and layers of boundaries and be vulnerable again.
3. Remember God’s love for you. It is unchanging and everlasting and He will not let you down.

Be blessed this week my friends,

{Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. Isaiah 40:28}