Disappointed?
Have you ever wanted something so bad only to come up short? Spend so much of your time working towards a goal to only miss your mark. Hoping for good news but receiving bad news. Praying for a miracle but never seeing it. Holding on to hope but being rewarded with disappointment.
In this life, we will encounter many disappointments. Sometimes it might even seem that disappointment is dominating our life. We will all face disappointment in every area of our lives, whether it’s in our professional lives, in our relationships, in our health, in our marriage, or in any other area there will always be disappointments we have to overcome. And the thing about disappointment is that it can zap your strength and drain you of your will to keep going.
But I want to encourage you today if you are dealing with disappointment to keep going. To persevere. To keep enduring, and to place your hope in Jesus Christ. Jesus will never disappoint.
Think of what Paul says in Romans 5:3-5 NLT, “3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” When we continue to endure our disappointments, it develops in us strong character which strengthens our hope of salvation. That hope will never disappoint because it is placed in Jesus.
God wants you to learn to trust and depend on Him. That can only truly be learned through persevering through our disappointments. Can you say you truly rely on God if nothing has ever put you in a position where you had to fully rely on God? Can you say you have faith if that faith has never been tested? It is when we are tested and experience disappointments, but we choose to persevere that the faith that is inside us is proven genuine. This is what Peter is talking about in 1 Peter 1:6-7 NLT, “6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
When you are disappointed, trust God. God wants you to rely on Him. If you could do it on your own you would not need Him, but it is in our weakness that His glory shines through.
I know today you may be facing great disappointment, but don’t let it suck the life out of you. Keep going. Put your hope in Jesus because he will never disappoint and He will use the disappointments of your life to strengthen you and show His glory to the world around you.
