That Sinking Feeling

"God sent Jesus to rescue us from disappointment and to provide endless, eternal hope."

ZACHARIAS AND ELIZABETH PRAYED FOR A CHILD but found themselves childless in their old age. So when the angel appeared to him in the temple to say his prayer was going to be answered, he’d given up long ago and didn’t believe it. Being honest, the angel talking to me would’ve convinced me. But point is, disappointment had taken over and it caused Zacharias to doubt.

Disappointment’s greatest cause is time. We want things today and aren’t content to wait and trust God. Incorrect knowledge and mistaken understanding is another cause. We expect what we cannot have or what is against God’s will and plan for us. The devil is the author of confusion. He will insert wrong ideas to get us off-center and into disappointments. Then he whispers in our ear, “Hey … pssst … blame God, because He COULD HAVE fixed this,” and we bite into it.

Disappointment never comes from God. He is the God of all hope. But our lives must be submitted to Him, and our heart’s desires come from Him. This is not to say He forces us into something outside of our personality. He does change us and strengthen us when we walk with Him, but I can assure you He will never expect me to skydive or eat watermelon. I don’t have to be like anyone else but myself.

The devil gives us wrong desires, and we end up disappointed when they aren’t quite so rosy, or they never materialize. The devil shoots down our correct desires, inserting doubt that they will ever come true. He will also cause us to act rashly and get ahead of God. This ends in disappointment. But desires given to us from our loving heavenly Father, which we hold in His hands and walk out at His pace, never disappoint us. Never.

“Therefore do not cast from you your confident hope, for it will receive a vast reward.” (Hebrews 10:35, Weymouth)

Even greater, God will return to us what the devil has stolen. He will fulfill the desires of our heart and bring recompense and restoration. If it is a dream that was incorrect, when we turn it over to Him, He will heal the heart and do something even greater. If it comes because of people, another huge cause of disappointment, He is the mender of broken hearts. He fixes situations that have gone awry and sets us back on the path of righteousness. That is the kind of wonderful Papa He is. He is exceedingly generous and abundant in kindness and wisdom.

“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.” (Joel 2:25)

The Israelites were promised a land full of milk and honey, an abundant land with vineyards and farms, cattle and sheep. They were promised all that other people had cultivated. Yet those who came out of Egypt cried to go back, wishing for the leeks and onions of their bondage. That is an incorrect desire. Even if they were sincere, that wasn’t God’s vision for them. Then, they disobeyed God’s commandments and worshiped idols and refused to repent and worship Him. He had delivered them with a strong hand and in mighty wonders, but instead of taking hold of the promise He had kept before their ancestors for many generations, they all died wandering in the wilderness, and their children entered the Promised Land instead. Disappointment destroyed them and turned them aside from God’s truth.

But that disappointment didn’t come from God. They weren’t listening to God. Psalm 139 says He knows us from our mother’s womb and has all our days written. This does not mean we are robots, but that when we walk with God, or even if we stray but repent, He will guide us ahead in the plan and purpose He has for us. Being in the will of God and staying obedient and humble to it will bring us hope and great joy every day of our life.

“Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book all my days were recorded, even those which were purposed before they had come into being.” (Psalm 139:16 BBE)

That said, we have a choice. King Saul was picked to be King of Israel over all other men, but though he walked after God at first, he fell into sin and not only lost the kingship in God’s eyes but was tormented by an evil spirit for most of his life and died in battle. This was not God’s will for him. But because he did what he thought to do and not what God had told him to do, the young shepherd, David, was anointed to be king in his stead.

God sent Jesus to rescue us from disappointment and to provide endless, eternal hope. He wanted us to know that He would go to the uttermost to not only rescue us but to see that we are joyful. He sent the Holy Spirit to provide joy in His presence and to give us both the desires God wants us to have and the strength and wisdom to fulfill them.

“For it is God who is the cause of your desires and of your acts, for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13 BBE)

Life is not a long rosy path dancing in the sunlight but only because the enemy tries to throw us off pace and out-of-alignment. For that reason, we must mature in our faith, knowing both God’s will for us and the weapons He has placed in our hands to stand successfully against him, and one of those weapons, the Word of God, is only indispensable when it is revealed to our heart through the Holy Spirit. What we’ve learned to do cannot then be taken away. A child, once taught to stand, to walk, to run, will not lose their knowledge of it. The other weapon, a solid prayer life comes through dedication, and it is more than simply uttering words, but speaking them, anointed by God just as Jesus did when He walked on earth. He was a man listening to the Spirit of God to know what to say and where to go, and as such, He did not suffer disappointment. Except in those He wished to save who would not hear Him.

Even then, His Father comforted His heart, and He found in the task set before Him, great joy, for what His death would do is bring Resurrection and to these, who believed, eternal life.

“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:10-12)

Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com