When God Hurts Your Feelings

Yes, God will absolutely hurt your feelings but for your own good. Hear me out…

This is where I am mentally/spiritually:

My greatest desire is to do God’s work, to be His hands and feet, to demonstrate His love, to reflect His glory, to be obedient to His plan and perfect will. I say this with all sincerity. I want to do the work that God has for me, I want to have relationships that God wants me to have, I want to spend my money on what God wants me to spend money on, and I want to be righteous. The bottom line is this; I want to govern every aspect of my life according to the will of God. I understand that the only reason that I have life in my body is to make the name of Jesus great. I have asked God to mold my desires to be the same as His desires.

The blessing of that mental/spiritual standing:

God speaks to you! When we become completely focused on Christ and we are interested above all else in doing His work He will began to develop us, speak to us, and the Holy Spirit will be powerfully at work in our lives. Often times God will give us the inside scoop about the task that He is preparing us for. He may tell you a clear picture of what your life looks like in the future, what your life will accomplish, etc. It truly is a blessing to know exactly what God is preparing you to accomplish.

The dilemma:

So God has great things in store for you and he has given you a glimpse of what it looks like and of course, in your human nature you are excited (nothing wrong with that)! The problem occurs when you attempt to speed things up. You want everything to be manifested in “your” time, after all, it’s all for God’s glory. We become anxious and unfortunately anxiousness often leads to fear, doubt, distrust, frustration, disappointment, etc. God calls for us to rest in Him. The scripture that states this most explicitly is Philippians 4:6

“Do not fret or have anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite request), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God”.

God wants us to REST in HIM. Being anxious demonstrates unrest and distrust which ultimately will destroy the blessing. This is seen in James 1:6-8

“But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

This scripture in James helps us to see the importance of resting in God. To put in it 2012 language God is saying “I’ve got this under control. I created you and your life. I really don’t need your help…I just need your obedience. Who are you to determine the time-frame in which I make something happen??! Did you create yourself? Can you see what’s happening behind the scenes? Can you see into the future? No! You don’t even know what will happen in the next 30 seconds yet, you think that you are an expert on time?! Psssssh! Sit down, shut up, all of the time and WAIT on me to move. Trust my love for you. Trust my purpose for you. And trust what I have put in your heart. Don’t ask me for something and then be all anxious about it. I’m your daddy and I love you more than your finite mind can understand. Just chill out and let ME be God. I love you”. Ok, that, my friends is the “feelings crusher” part of this. God will straight shut you DOWN! And rightfully so, you see, feelings have little place in what God needs for us to have. Feelings and emotions move with the circumstances but God needs for it to be a heart/spirit thing. When everything is for His glory…our feelings should have little influence on our behaviors.  He will knock you to your knees to help you understand that He is God alone. I know it’s hard for us to believe because we are so great but, God does NOT need our help in determining how things should be done. He actually needs for us to just submit and be obedient. What IS fair for us to ask however, is the strength to be patient. And He will provide that, His desire is not to hold any good thing from us but to work His perfect plan in our lives.

Christians, we have a horrible habit of giving things to God and then snatching it back and we get into this vicious cycle of giving and taking back and this does not please God. Don’t we understand that God likes cheerful givers?! We have associated that to finances only, but that is with EVERYTHING (our concerns, burdens, gifts and talents, money, etc.) God’s desire is for us to cheerfully give him our burdens and concerns, hopes and dreams, and finances and gifts with full confidence that He can handle it all. We looked at Philippians 4:6 but there is a beautiful conditional statement in the following verse. Philippians 4:7 says,

“and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

So, IF we do not fret or have anxiety about circumstances but rather ask God with thanksgiving, THEN, the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds through the strength of Christ.

Is not that a beautiful promise?! There is something about having peace that is so sweet. Peace is a universal treasure. Ask a celebrity how important peace is and ask a poor person in Liberia who have absolutely nothing but can still lift their hands with a smile on their face and say “God is good, and I am thankful for my blessings”. The answer is universal, peace is so valuable, its price is above rubies. Peace says, no matter what the circumstances are, all is well with my soul because I know and recognize who is in control of not only my life, but the entire world.

The bottom line is, sometimes God hurts our feelings to get us back on track and put things in perspective and PRAISE GOD for that! It’s all for our good! So, if you have experienced something similar, lift your hands and tell God “Thank you Daddy”! When you ask God to mold you into the image of Christ…we better be in full expectation that God will do just that! Jesus bootcamp ain’t over, he’s molding you into His image. And that my friends, is complete elevation!

Daddy thank you for loving us enough to hurt our feelings. You are amazing and your love is amazing. Our desire is to be more like You. You are our best example because you are perfect, blameless, and without fault. Help us to trust you more and to feast off of your faithfulness. Thank you for giving us a glimpse of what you have in store for our future. Give us the patience to trust You and Your timing fully. We get so excited that we often try to jump ahead of you, but thank you for your divine purpose and plan. Give us peace and patience. Give us Your wisdom. We love you with our whole hearts, purify our love and purify our lives for Your glory. You are everything! Amen.

With love,

Kristin Sarai