Episode #362 Is God Disappointed in Me? – Real Peace, Secure Faith

Friend, I'm excited to spend these few minutes with you as we practice noticing God and talking with him more as we go about our daily lives. The whole point of the Good God Talks podcast is to help you grow your habit of having these uncommon conversations with God in everyday life moments. And they're uncommon, not because God doesn't want to have them, but because a lot of us never learned to engage with God relationally and conversationally this way.

And today we're talking with God about relating to him as our Good Father. That's one of the relational roles he plays in our lives. He is Good Heavenly Father and we can come to him as his beloved daughters and sons. But that's not easy for a lot of us. I know it wasn't always easy for me. And part of where I would default was this perspective, this approach to time with God, where I kind of felt like I was auditioning for him. There was this default assumption that God would easily be disappointed with me. I was trying to gain his approval. I was trying to make him happy and not disappointed. And so I would come into times with the Lord, even in private, even when it was with my quiet time, and I would feel like I was auditioning for him.

Can I show him the best side of me?

Can I pray well today?

Am I going to find something good from the word, and he's going to be proud of me for showing up here?

But children don't audition for family.

In healthy family dynamics, like what we can have with our Heavenly Father, acceptance, our love is not based on achievement or performance.

I want to read for us Romans 8:15. It says,

"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!"

The way we call out to God as a father, comes because we have been adopted in and the Spirit by which we were adopted, God's Holy Spirit, who says to us, you are my adopted child. You are mine. My beloved is not a spirit of slavery that induces fear.

I reflect on this in my own life, the drive, the concern that I have, that makes me feel like I need to perform or achieve or audition for God's acceptance, is ultimately motivated by fear. Fear of rejection, fear of being a disappointment to God, and so then him rejecting me or taking himself away from me, or simply just not wanting to be with me because I haven't achieved the level that he's looking for.

But Scripture tells us that we did not receive that spirit to prompt us to be afraid, but instead we have received adoption. And so we can freely call out “Father!” Adoption means permanence. It's not temporary. It's not temperamental. We cry out to God as our Good Father, not because we earned it, but because we belong.

So I invite you today to reflect on the walk that you have with God and the relational way you connect with him as your Good Father.

This was a hard fought area of growth for me because for years, it was really hard for me to see God as father. I could see him as Almighty God, King of Kings, Holy and Mighty One. But Good Father? That I can turn to and cry out to? Who scoops me up just as I am, that doesn't require me to audition or perform for him? That was harder. Because a lot of how I approached him was based on fear.

And so I invite you to take this conversation to God today because his Word tells us that he didn't bring us into our family so that we could be under a burden of slavery that pulls us back into fear. But to bring us into a place of belonging, we can call on him freely as Good Father.

And so here's a question that I invite you to use as you talk with God about this topic today:

God, what does belonging change about how I approach you?

Maybe he'll show you an area where this has been difficult for you. Or like me, where you can sometimes be motivated by fear and what he offers you instead in adoption as his beloved son or daughter. Or maybe he'll highlight for you an area of growth or freedom that you're already walking in because you've been able to experience him as your Good Father in this way.

I don't know what he has for you today, but I know he has something and I'm excited for you to go and explore that with him, because he really is your Good Father who loves you.

Have a good talk. 

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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