{"id":413,"date":"2020-06-20T18:59:22","date_gmt":"2020-06-20T22:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/confidenceingod.com\/?p=413"},"modified":"2020-06-20T21:17:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-21T01:17:55","slug":"stop-feeling-guilt-and-shame-for-disappointing-god-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/confidenceingod.com\/es\/stop-feeling-guilt-and-shame-for-disappointing-god-now\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a1Deje De Sentir Culpa Y Verg\u00fcenza Por Decepcionar A Dios Ahora Mismo!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two Reasons It is Impossible to Disappoint God<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some time ago I was grappling with the idea of disappointing God. In fact, I found that I was apologizing to God quite often for having disappointed Him. The most common things that would trigger this guilt and shame that lead to an apology involved my failure to do something that I knew was right to do and that I had committed to God that I would do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several years ago I committed to fasting 40 hours in a single week once each month. When I failed to fast the full 40 hours, I would feel guilt and shame because I felt like I disappointed God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, don’t be too impressed with this commitment. I did not fast 40 straight hours. I fasted from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. for 4 consecutive days. That doesn’t sound too hard because, technically, it is only skipping one meal per day. However, I can tell you that it gets harder with each consecutive day, especially when you don’t make up the calories that you skipped each day by eating a big supper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My failures generally occurred because I let something at work interfere. Either I would have a lunch meeting during the week that I generally fasted, or I let something keep me from putting my work aside and spending my lunch hour praying. Either way I felt like I disappointed God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suspect you are thinking to yourself about all those things you try to do but just can\u2019t fit into your day as often as you feel you should. Those are the things that cause you to feel guilt and shame and that you are disappointing God. But you are not!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s face it; many people often feel guilt and shame for disappointing God. Why? Because if you have been a Christian for any length of time at all you have been taught all of the things you should do, such as read the Bible and pray daily, attend church every time the door is open, incorporate fasting into your life, and regularly share your testimony with other people. But when it comes down to daily life, you find it difficult to do all of these things and keep up with your responsibilities at work, home, school, and church. Can we really stop feeling this guilt and shame when we can\u2019t seem to get it all together as we are taught? Yes! And the way to do that is to understand that you do not, and cannot, disappoint God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There was a period of time that I felt I was disappointing God quite regularly. I found myself praying on my way to or from work and asking God to forgive me for disappointing Him, letting Him down. Over time, God began reassuring me that I was not disappointing Him. I was merely disappointing myself and depriving myself of the blessings of fasting, praying, or whatever good thing that I had neglected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to see that we do not disappoint God, let’s start with a definition of “disappoint.” In this context it means, to fail to satisfy the hope, desire, or expectation of. Synonyms include:  let down, fail, dishearten, depress, dispirit, upset, sadden, dash the hopes of, chagrin, dismay, disgruntle, disenchant, disillusion, dissatisfy, vex. Do you feel like you let God down, fail Him, cause Him to be disheartened, depressed, dispirited, upset, saddened, etc.? I will explain why it is impossible to do that.  But first, let\u2019s look at the Apostle Paul and how he was disappointed by other people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Disappointments of the Apostle Paul<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that people disappoint other people. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 2:1-4 we see that Paul had been disappointed by the people in the church in Corinth. Paul explained to the church in Corinth why he would not be visiting the church again as he had originally planned. He changed his plans because he was heavy in heart, knowing that he would have to rebuke the church again if he visited again. He chose not to distress the church by further rebuke and, instead, wrote his second letter to the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This heaviness was a sadness resulting from those who Paul expected to cause him joy. Paul’s expectations were not met by some of the Corinthian church members. As we saw above, “failure of expectations” is a part of the definition of “disappoint.” Paul was disappointed and did not want to show that disappointment to the church. So, he changed his plans and did not visit again as they were expecting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paul gives us another example of being disappointed in his letter to the church in Galatia. In Galatians 1:6, Paul states, \u201cI marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.\u201d “Marvel” means to be surprised and astonished. Paul is expressing surprise and disappointment that the Galatian church was deserting their faith in the Gospel of Christ and moving toward other teachings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprise is a part of disappointment. When we don’t expect someone to perform a certain way, we aren’t surprised when they don’t perform that way. Also, we aren’t disappointed because we didn’t expect it any way. As an example, if I ask my husband to stop by the cleaners to pick up a jacket I would like to wear to church on Sunday and he explains to me that he doesn’t think he will be able to do so, when he doesn’t pick it up, I am not surprised and I am not disappointed. However, if he told me he would pick it up but neglects to do so, then I am surprised and I am disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see in these two letters from the Apostle Paul that he, as a man, was disappointed on at least two occasions. There are two elements to disappointment:  1) Failure to satisfy the hope, desire or expectation of someone; and 2) Surprise. These are the two reasons why we don\u2019t disappoint God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reason Number 1 \u2013 God Doesn\u2019t Expect Perfection From Us<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to my example of failing to meet my commitment to fasting, do I let God down, disappoint Him, when I allow something to interfere with my fasting week?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, does God expect me to succeed with every good thing His Word teaches us to do? He doesn\u2019t expect perfection from us. Expect means to regard something as likely to happen or someone as likely to do something. Does God expect me to fast?  Does He expect me to pray a certain amount of time every day?  Does He expect me to attend church every time the door is open? No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These are excellent things to do and we should strive to do them in order to be blessed by the act of doing them, not because we do them. We cannot earn blessings. Like grace, they are free gifts of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does God expect of me, and out of each of us? 1 John 3:23-24 tells us that God expects Christians (those who are in a relationship with God by already having received salvation) to believe on the name of Jesus and to love one another. That’s it! He expects no more of us but to believe and love. And Psalm 103:14 reminds us that God knows our frame and remembers that we are dust. He knows we are human. He does not expect us to be perfect and to read the Bible and pray an hour a day, fast 3 days a month, and attend church every time the door is open. These are all good things for us to do. And we are blessed by doing them. But God does not expect it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reason Number 2 \u2013 We Cannot Surprise God<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second element necessary for being disappointed is being surprised. God is omniscient, all-knowing. We are reminded in Psalm 139:1-4 and 15-16 that He knows everything about us. If God knows each of us this intimately, He certainly is not surprised by anything we think, say, or do … or fail to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God is not Disappointed in You, He Loves You!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My purpose today is to remind you that God loves you no matter what you do. His love for you does not change<\/strong> when you succeed in praying 4 hours a day, fasting 5 days a month, and reading an entire book of the Bible every day. His love for you does not change<\/strong> when you can’t squeeze in 15 minutes of prayer a day, haven’t fasted in years, and a single verse of scripture is all you can read in a week. You can stop feeling guilt and shame for disappointing God now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I am not saying you should not endeavor to do all of the good things God asks you to do. In fact, according to Philippians 2:13 in the Amplified Version of the Bible, God “is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.”  We don’t receive glory because we do His good pleasure and delight. God gets the glory. He is the one that energizes us and gives us the energy and desire to do the things His Word teaches us to do. We are blessed by the act of walking according to His Word. We don’t earn blessings by walking according to His Word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you find you haven’t done something you know is pleasing to the Lord and you know God would want you to do, don\u2019t give in to guilt and shame. You must remember that you haven’t disappointed Him! You have only disappointed yourself and robbed yourself of the blessing of doing it. Remember that it is our own heart that condemns us, not God. 1 John 3:20 tells us, \u201cFor if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you often feel guilt and shame because you think you have disappointed God, think again. He loves you with an unconditional love. He does not expect you to be perfect and He is not surprised or disappointed by anything you think, say, do, or fail to do! Stop feeling guilt and shame for disappointing God now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dos Razones por las cuales es Imposible Decepcionar a Dios -- Hace alg\u00fan tiempo estaba lidiando con la idea de decepcionar a Dios. De hecho, me di cuenta que le estaba pidiendo perd\u00f3n a Dios con mucha frecuencia por haberlo decepcionado. Las cosas m\u00e1s comunes que desencadenaban esta culpa y verg\u00fcenza, las cuales conllevaban a una disculpa, involucraban mi falta de hacer algo que sab\u00eda que era correcto hacer y no hacer lo que le hab\u00eda prometido a Dios que har\u00eda.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[32,33,19,35,20],"class_list":["post-413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-confidence-in-my-relationship-with-god","tag-bible","tag-disappoint","tag-god","tag-perfect","tag-scriptures"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/confidenceingod.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/confidenceingod.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/confidenceingod.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/confidenceingod.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/confidenceingod.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/confidenceingod.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429,"href":"https:\/\/confidenceingod.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/confidenceingod.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/confidenceingod.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/confidenceingod.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}