When You Feel Like You Are Letting God Down Every Day

There is a question I ask myself far more often than I admit. It is not a neat or polished question. It shows up on the hard days, the quiet days, and the days when I am painfully aware of my own shortcomings.

How do you overcome the fear that you are not saved, that you are not good enough, that you might be falling short in ways God could never accept?

I ask myself that because there are days when I feel like I let God down every single time I wake up and try again. I know the right things. I know what Scripture says. I know salvation is not about performance. And yet, there is this lingering feeling that I should be further along, stronger, more disciplined, more obedient. The gap between who I am and who I want to be sometimes feels impossible to close.

More years ago than I care to admit, an old friend I worked with on several productions offered me an answer that, while I still sturggle, shifted everything. What he told be still gets me thru my self doubt.

I told him I was frustrated with myself, that I knew better but still fell into the same patterns, the same weaknesses, the same disappointments. I told him that in those moments I even question my salvation.

He answered with a kind of clarity that only comes from someone who has walked through the same valley.

He said, if you are struggling with sin, do not question whether you are saved. Question it only if you can sin and feel nothing. A person with the Holy Spirit cannot sit comfortably in the things that pull them away from God. Conviction is part of the process. It is one of the ways God keeps you close.

He reminded me of something simple but easy to forget. If you were spiritually dead, you would not care. The fact that you feel the weight, the grief, the tension is evidence that something inside you is alive and responding.

A dead heart does not wrestle. Only a living one does.

He reminded me that we are saved by faith alone, but that faith is never alone. It is accompanied by change, desire, conviction, and the slow, patient shaping of your character. Not perfection. Not a spotless record. Just the unmistakable signs of someone being formed by God over time.

He helped me see that sanctification is not a straight line. It is a slow, uneven process that moves through highs and lows. Some days look like growth. Some days look like setbacks. Both are part of becoming more like Christ.

And the presence of that tension is not proof that God has abandoned you. It is often the clearest sign that He has not.

So if you ever feel like I do, like you let God down daily, remember this.

He already knows your weaknesses. He is not surprised by them. He sees the fight inside you, even when you only see the failures.

And the fight itself is the evidence that you are His.