Mike,

Can I ask you a question? I need to know why God keeps allowing the same pattern in my life. To make a long story short, it has to do with Father figures that make promises to me and then break them. Certainly they are all different scenarios; my real Father and his broken promises, my former pastor that was always making promises he couldn’t keep, my brother-in-law who was supposed to help me. I realized the thread is a Father-like figure who just cannot, for whatever reason, follow through to keep their Word to me! It really has eaten at me and made me very angry. I know THIS IS GOD DOING THIS. THEN I FEEL LIKE IF GOD IS A FATHER, HE IS CRUEL TOO, BECAUSE HE IS CREATING THIS. I don’t understand this. Can you help me with this? I really know what Job meant when he said this:

Job 3:3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
Job 3:4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.

Sometimes I wonder why God put me here. Every situation I have found myself in, whether family or friends the relationships are usually one-sided where we are usually giving, remain faithful but usually end up with nothing but empty promises or disappointments. I am very aware these feelings are very close to my departure from my old church, and maybe there are some unresolved issues that need some healing. I just don’t understand why it SEEMS LIKE GOD keeps this disappointment in man so fresh for me All The TIME. Hope you can help. Forgive my ranting, but if I can understand why, then maybe I will be able to accept the lot God has ordained for me.

Yours in Christ,
J____

Hi J____,

You ask why God has given you the experience of being disappointed by all the father figures you have ever known in your life?

I think your experience is common to us all. Of course Christ is the one “Everlasting Father” who will never disappoint any of us, and if indeed Christ were in your physical father, your former pastor, your brother-in-law, or any other man who has so disappointed you, then they would not have done that, but would have let their yea be yea and their nay, nay, and would never say anything they did not mean with their whole being.

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Mat 5:37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

The truth is that it simply is not natural to be that full of integrity, and it takes Christ in any man or woman to make a person truly believe that it is a blessing to “swear to [one’s] own hurt and not change”.

Psa 15:1 A Psalm of David. LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
Psa 15:2 He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.
Psa 15:3 He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.
Psa 15:4 In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

The New Testament reveals that we are God’s tabernacle, and the one abiding in that tabernacle is the spirit of God in the form of Jesus Christ, “the Everlasting Father”:

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

So when Christ dwells within us, we are all dependable and our yea is yea and our nay is nay, and we are that way simply because we fear God more than men.

1Pe 2:17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

Rev 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

I have had the very same experience about which you ask. It seemed no one was willing to keep their word at any cost. It seemed that the world was filled with people who all operated on the principle of whatever was expected or was convenient or was relevant to the situation or the times… anything but principle.

However, when I myself was granted to become serious about obeying my Lord, then I was granted to be put into fellowship with others who were given that same desire to remain faithful to our Lord and His Words. That is because Christ is in those in whom He dwells, and He is the same wherever you meet Him and His Christ. Only Christ is totally truthfully, and that’s why we are admonished:

Psa 146:3  Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.

Until this life is past, this is the simple Truth our Lord has revealed to us:

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it. (CLV)

I can tell you from personal experience that it is indeed humbling and even humiliating to finally come to see just who the old Adam is and to discover that it is he who is dwelling in the temple of God.

When you find men or women in whom Christ dwells, you will not be disappointed because that person does not carry through with the words that come out of his or her mouth. You will at first, no doubt, not like the words that come out of their mouths, but the one thing you can rest assured of is that their words are sure, and they operate on principles of honesty and not on a principle of convenience.

I hope this helps you to see that Christ is our “Everlasting Father”, and that if He is in any man or woman, then the Father is in that person and will never let you down again.

Your brother who, with Christ’s help, will always let his yes be yes and his no, no.

Mike