I would like to know … can we embarrass God? Several times in Nehemiah’s prayer to God he refers to the fact that the Jews are God’s special people. They’re His “children,” His “servants,” and those for whom God made a dwelling place with His name on it. Yet these children of God acted corruptly and totally disregarded God’s commands and promises. Was God embarrassed about giving them His name? And likewise, can we embarrass God?
Since God knows everything we’re going to do before the fact, we can’t surprise Him with our behavior, and surprise is an element of embarrassment. But since He does express feelings I think He can share in our embarrassment, or in other words to be embarrassed for us. And Paul said we should not grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephes. 4:30). But when we do something like that He knows it’s not us but the sin that dwells within us that caused the problem, (Romans 7:20) so it doesn’t change the way He sees us.