Has God let you down?

 Some of the saddest people I've met in life believe that God let them down in their time of need. Perhaps they prayed for a loved one to be healed, but no healing took place. Maybe a child of theirs fought addictions, and, despite many prayers, never overcame that addiction. Some who felt they were in a wonderful relationship suddenly learned their spouse was involved in an affair and planning on leaving. How could God let that happen? Others suffered financial reverses making it difficult to enjoy their old age. They had done nothing wrong, but their finances were lost due to the misdeeds of others. In all of these cases it's easy to question God. Where was He? Didn't He care? Why didn't He answer my prayers? It's not fair. The end result of all this is that these people believe God, if He even exists, cannot be trusted.

I've never got that far in my thinking, but there have been times I wondered why God didn't seem to respond as quickly or in the way I thought He should. What I've learned is that God never fails us. Sometimes we are unable to see His working in our lives. Certainly, there are many times He does things differently than we might have preferred. It's easy to forget that in His perfect wisdom He sees things in our future we are unable to see, He doesn't always give us the answer we might want right now because He knows of a better way to respond that will serve us better in the future.

While God will never fail us, others will. The church has failed many people. The church fails us, and we want to blame God. It's not God who failed us; it's the imperfect people who make up the church. I hate to admit that people have left the church because I failed to serve them as I should have. Sometimes I didn't meet their expectations, whether fair or not, and they chose to walk away. Sometimes the church lets people fall through the cracks. We become so busy with "church" things that we fail to see people when they are hurting. Failing to have their hurts recognized, some will decide the church has nothing for them and leave. And, let's admit it, the church doesn't always respond well to folks who don't meet their expectations. I'll never forget the church that fired their pastor, while he was in a hospital bed, because his unwed daughter became pregnant. Yes, churches can be that insensitive, and then they wonder why people leave.

Pastors can also fail you. It seems there have been so many pastors this year removed from ministry because of sexual misconduct. Others fail their congregations by their emotional immaturity or by failing to preach sound doctrine, Some fail due to pure laziness. The list goes on.

God will never fail you, but His church and His church leaders sometimes will. The good news is that for every toxic church and minister there are many who are faithful to serve and to preach the Good News. If a church or minister hurts you, don't lump all churches and ministers together. Find a good one and serve and worship God there.