When You Feel Like God Doesn’t Understand

Our feelings are very human and part of what makes us frail. To limit our frailty, we find ways to harden or suppress or otherwise numb our emotions. We may ignore our hearts, ignore other people’s feelings, use distraction like substances or video games or other addictions, or simply avoid things that might stir up the murky depths of our hearts.

Our feelings are also very god-like; meaning, we have feelings because God has feelings, and He created us to be like him, to be in His image (Genesis 1:27). Throughout the Word of God, we learn that in his dealings with human beings, the Lord expresses love, anger, mercy, sarcasm, and compassion. Only God is not frail because of his emotions, nor is He ever unrighteous.

Why should emotions make us frail? Feelings can inspire us with the energy to accomplish great things. They can move us to do something that our minds might have determined impossible. But what if it is anger that motivates us, or jealousy, or feelings of inferiority or pride? What if our emotional impulse usurps what our intellect knows is unwise or wrong, and we do things we later regret? What if we get things mixed up inside and we sleep around because all we really want is to be loved?

We are frail because we cannot, in ourselves and through others, meet our perpetual needs for love, personal worth, and security. When any of these needs are compromised, violated, or unmet, we feel angry, resentful, lonely, vengeful, afraid, and jealous. We turn to techniques to curb the outward loss of control and find coping skills to manage our emotions.

Jesus was a human being. He felt every feeling that we feel. He knows what it feels like to be betrayed, misunderstood, disrespected, and to endure physical and verbal abuse (Hebrews 4:15). He endured the extremity of suffering and submitted to the frailty of his humanness, to the point of pleading with God to remove the suffering and find another way to save us (Luke 22:42).

There was no other way. It’s likely that all of the praying He did before he was crucified enabled him to fulfill his hard purpose.

Jesus was also fully God. He felt our infirmities and yet did not sin. Because of this, we have a savior and can be redeemed and restored. Once we believe in Jesus, God gives us His Spirit to live inside of us, filling us. The more we learn about Him and obey with His help, the more His love and presence becomes a reality in our beings, strengthening and restoring us.

Do you believe the love of Jesus can heal you from whatever you might be struggling with?