This post is part 10 of our series, What to Do When the Church Lets You Down. You can see all the posts here.
The hurt that follows when the church lets you down can run deep. We are stripped of idols, sent back to the Cross, and asked to do the hard work of reconciliation. It can take time to heal and that’s okay. The road to healing can be long, but as we seek God’s face, it can yield a fruit that cannot be replaced.
As long as we live, we can hope in the truth that God has already won. In Jesus, we have victory. And we can know that He is not finished yet. God is still at work in your life and in the life of His church.
This is the end of our series, but this is not the end your road to healing and truth.
And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. ~Acts 20:32
You are in good hands, dear reader. The God who made you, who sees you, your Jehovah-Jireh is with you. He’s not left you. He can build you up and give you a place among believers who love and honor Him in thought, word, and deed.
Cry out to Him. Trust Him. And know that I am praying with you!
Did you miss any of the posts in this series? You can see a list of all the posts here.
Why Our Family Prepares, Eats, and Cleans Up Meals Together
Thank you for this 10 part series.
Our family is in the middle of “the big letdown” right now.
We moved from MN to TN to work at a church. No longer do this volunteer position, but just been “waiting” for several years for another opportunity. Been at this church for almost 8 years.
Been feeling unwanted by our church family. Trying to keep positive through prayer.
Praying for an opportunity or release to go somewhere else.
Feels like we will never fit in or find the right church family.
Encourages me to see you say that you found the church for your family.
Thanks!
My family and I have been in our church for twenty years. Being there has successfully achieved in me a incredible sense of rejection and lack of worth. My children and husband have also been ignored and forgotten. Our requests for assistance, friendship, inclusion, etc. have mostly fallen on deaf ears. There are so many things that have been super painful. Now I feel as if I have nothing to give to anyone since when we needed help it wasn’t there. I don’t now how to reach out to others, I am afraid to ever help anyone because if we are so worthless and unimportant then clearly no one wants us around to help them. That feeling has now extended over into just about every domain our family is involved in. We used to be a normal, Christian, less than perfect family, but we have become afraid of our own shadow and feel devoid of worth. It is VERY hard disassociating how we have been treated with how God feels about us. Cognitively we can read in Gods’ Word that He loves us, but if the church is supposed to be a reflection of Christ on earth it is a reasonable, albeit incorrect, conclusion that He must not favor us as much as He favors everyone else at church. I am now trying very hard to beg and plead with God through prayer and the reading of His Word to make me so complete in Him that even if I and my family were hated by my church we wouldn’t notice. That emptying of self is very, very difficult. We already have no one else, and we had longed and hoped for a church family. That may never be. There are some nice people, and a few care about us, but it is soooo infrequent. Our kids are pretty much all grown now and bring that sense of rejection into their adult lives, hurting their potential for ministering and serving others. Often to give to others of one’s self, we have to believe we have value in what we give. But that has been taken from them. I pray that all of us stand firm in God alone, as you said, and not to make the church an idol. It’s very, very, very hard, though, when you have no one and nothing and the church caters to everyone who already has so much already. I thank God life on earth is short, and truthfully much of the time I look forward to heaven and being united with Christ.