Just ask Peter.
On the surface, it looks like Jesus’ prayer failed. After all, last time I checked, this is the same Peter who would go on to deny Jesus three times. It seems that Jesus would have every reason to be disappointed. But that is only if we assume that Jesus means He is praying that Peter’s faith would not fail at all.
Peter’s faith did fail.
But it did not fail completely.
Jesus knew Peter was going to deny Him. Jesus was not praying against that. He was praying that it would not be the final word for Peter. And, of course, His prayer was answered. Peter faltered in his faith. But he returned and became one of the leaders of the early church.
Peter could not disappoint Jesus. And neither can you. Do you know what “to disappoint” means? It means give somebody an outcome other than what they expected. That is less than their hope.
How can you give God an outcome that He did not expect?
God knows you are going to fail. That thing you did yesterday: Jesus already knew you were going to do it before you did it. The same with the thing you did today, and the thing you will do tomorrow.
That might sound scary at first, but it should actually encourage you. God knows about it already, has known about it from eternity, but He has not given up on you. So why have you given up on yourself?
And even more than that, it should encourage you, because even if your faith does fail for a moment, you will ultimately succeed. The same God who knows you are going to fail is the same God who already has a plan in place to restore you when you do.—Steven Furtick
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When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you are trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must—but do not quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Do not give up, though the pace seems slow—
You might succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor's cup.
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out—
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt—
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you are hardest hit—
It´s when things seem worst that you must not quit.—Frank Stanton
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To suggest that God is ever disappointed in us is one of the guilt and shame techniques that the enemy uses against us to keep us wallowing in self-condemnation. … But the truth of the Scripture is this—it is impossible for you to disappoint God. You can not disappoint Him.
Why? The answer rests in the meaning of disappointment. Think about it for a moment. Disappointment is the result of an unfulfilled expectation. To be disappointed means that a person expects that an outcome will be one thing, when in fact it turns out in a different way. So the idea, then, that God would be disappointed means that God does not know everything. He thought we would do one thing and then we went and did another!
No, that will never happen. God does not expect anything. He knows everything in advance with 100% certainty. What could possibly disappoint God? Nothing you have ever done or will do catches Him by surprise.
To suggest that sins disappoint God is to fail to appreciate His full work at the cross. I remind you that when Jesus absorbed your sins into Himself on the cross, He saw clearly every sin you would ever commit … He knew exactly what you would do. He saw them and dealt with them—all of them. God knows everything you are going to do in your lifetime and He has taken care of it at the cross. We might be disappointed in ourselves, but God can never be disappointed in us.
God … realizes that you are incapable of doing anything on your own. It is pure, undiluted legalism to think that you can overcome temptation to sin by your own resolve. In fact, Jesus said, 'apart from Me you can do nothing.'
Just because I say God is not disappointed in you when you do wrong, does not mean that He is okay with it when we sin. Your Father loves you and hates to see you hurt yourself, which is what sin always does. The reality is, though, that it is not God that punishes us for our sins, it is our sins that punish us for our sins. … There are still consequences, after all.
It is the consequence of our own choices, but we certainly do not disappoint God. He loves you and He adores you and expects nothing of you. That is why He wants you to depend on Him as your strength in the face of temptation. If you think this reality will cause people to want to go out and sin, you are missing the core meaning of grace. The grace of God teaches us who we are and then motivates and enables us to live like righteous children of God. But, when we do otherwise, it never catches Him off guard. He is already there to pick us up when we fall.—Steve Mc Vey
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In times of darkness I will be your light. In times of sadness I will be your joy. In times of struggle I will be your deliverance. In times of weakness I will be your strength. In times of question I will be your answer. And more important than any of this, I am love to you. You can never be lost to My love.
So do not be discouraged or disheartened, and do not look back. Do not be remorseful about the mistakes and sins of the past, for the past is the past. In the very moment that you sought My forgiveness and called out to Me, I granted forgiveness, so there is no need to worry or fear or carry the burden yourself.
Do not agonize over the past or fear for the future. Look up into My loving face. Come to Me, and you will find perfect forgiveness, perfect comfort, perfect strength, perfect love, from now until the day that I return for you.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy
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Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.—Hebrews 12:1–24
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