Had an additional thought on the topic of hurt and expectations.

Let’s talk about being “hurt” by God. If you pray a prayer, and He doesn’t answer it in the way you want, and you feel hurt.

Dissecting it according to the previous post on hurt and expectation shows that we expected something of God, that he did not meet. So it’s nothing to do with who we are, or who God is, but it’s our expectation of what God would do for us.

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Now, if you have an argument with a friend of yours, what usually happens?

You get hurt.

You might be in the wrong. Or they might be.

But eventually someone apologises, and you get over that hurt. Maybe you were wrong, and you set some time to approach them face to face, and apologise.

Or, maybe you were in the right. But you still set some time aside to apologise and humble yourself and say that this relationship is more important than your pride.

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If we’ve been hurt by God – meaning He hasn’t met our expectations of Him, then unfortunately, we’ve got no wiggle room. We are in the wrong, because He is GOD. And OUR expectations need to change to His expectations of us.

So why is it so hard for us to think this way about God? Why is our relationship with God “not worth fighting for”?

Psalm 37:4
New International Version (NIV)
4 Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

This verse feels like it’s the wrong way around. Sometimes we feel like it should be: when God gives you the desires of your heart, you can delight in Him.

But that’s not what it says. What it does say is to take delight in the Lord. To value your relationship with Him. To ask Him to help you to see things the way that He does.

And he will give you the desires of your heart – which will be more in tune with his.