Have you ever been disappointed by God? Ever felt let down by Him? Me too. 

I believe it was after my husband and I watched our third baby’s heart stop beating on the ultrasound screen that a part of me wasn’t sure I wanted to keep praying.

Why keep talking, after all, when it seems like no one is listening?

For a few months, maybe even longer, following that third miscarriage, I struggled in my faith. There were moments I wanted to give up on God. I felt abandoned by Him, left out to dry by the One who promised never to leave me nor forsake me.

I struggled with prayer because I didn’t want to pray for something again…only to be let down when the God who was able to help chose not to.

Looking back now, I’m glad I didn’t give up on God, though.

Because the truth is, there are a lot more reasons TO follow Him than reasons NOT TO.

4 Reasons NOT to Give Up on God:

1. He hasn’t given up on you.

There were many times I felt like God had left me. The problem with feelings, though, is they’re not always accurate. Feelings are fickle.

Instead of trusting in our feelings, we need to trust in the unchanging Words of God. And His Words are clear. He promises to always be with us and never leave us nor forsake us. (Deuteronomy 31:8).

Even if our pain or our circumstances or our feelings lead us to believe He’s no longer with us, we can choose to believe what God’s Word tells us instead.

2. He really does want to redeem your hard situation.

I love what Joel 2:25 says, “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.”

The “locusts” might have stolen a lot from you. They stole five years and four babies from me.

But in this text, God promises He will repay us for the things we have lost.

God might not fix our situations in the way we want Him to, but He will always work through them and bring about something good from them.

3. He actually doesn’t owe us anything.

We might not say aloud that we think God owes us anything, but my guess is, many of us have probably thought something similar.

I’m a good person. I go to church. I worship Jesus. How could He allow this to happen to me?

In reality, though, God doesn’t owe us anything. He doesn’t owe my husband and me a baby. He’s already done more than enough on the cross. Anything more he blesses my life with is just icing on the cake.

When I finally wrapped my head around that, I stopped expecting God to fix everything for me and started learning to be more grateful for the blessings He had already given me.

4. We know the end of the story.

Movies are a lot more intense the first time around, aren’t they? I think it’s because we don’t yet know the ending.

Once we know the ending of the story, the climactic middle isn’t nearly as threatening.

We know the ending of our stories. We know that in the end, we win. If God is on our side, then there’s nothing that can defeat us (Romans 8).

So even though our current situations can be incredibly painful, I’d much rather go through these hurts with Jesus than go through them alone.

What other reasons would you add to this list?

Did you hear? My newest book, Unbeaten: How Biblical Heroes Rose Above Their Pain (and you can too), is available NOW! You can grab your copy here!  

About Unbeaten:

Why does life have to be so hard? If you’ve ever asked this question, you’re not alone. Difficult times often leave Christians searching the Bible for answers to some of life’s most difficult questions.

Questions like:

Does God hear me when I pray?

Why isn’t He doing anything?

Does He even care?

In Unbeaten: How Biblical Heroes Rose Above Their Pain (and you can too), Lindsey Bell walks with readers through the stories of men and women in the Bible who went through difficult situations. In this 10-week Bible study and devotional, she addresses many of these questions and helps readers learn how they too can be unbeaten.