School of Awakening Into MP3 Download Course
By Jeremy Lopez
What disappoints you? Is it yourself? Is it circumstances you think you shouldn’t have to go through? Is what you think God should have done for you think He didn’t? Is it other people giving up on fulfilling their potential?
When it comes to our personal failures and disappointments, it is very difficult to deal with. Case in point. when we really want such as to lose weight and try but fail. It’s disappointing when it doesn’t go as planned. When we hit roadblocks within ourselves it’s hard to know what to do.
It’s also disappointing when you know you are doing everything correctly and yet the scale is not moving. As a matter of fact, it’s going the wrong way. You cut down on your calories and the scale is still stuck. You cry out to God to make it work and it still doesn’t. Our hope is shot because we don’t know what to do.
Where Disappointment Leads
Disappointment can lead to discouragement, which can lead to giving up completely. We think this will curtail our disappointment. Not so. It only makes it worse because now we aren’t doing anything and that’s even more disappointing. Then we start blaming God for the difficulties we have.
To say difficulties like this aren’t disappointing would be a lie. They are disappointing. There is no way around that unless we place our hope in God. Romans 5:5 NLT says it this way, “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.”
Hope is more than wishful thinking. Hope is the foundation we build on. 1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT deems hope as one of three things that will always be with us. “Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” Love is the greatest but hope and faith are building blocks that hold love up. Without either of these, love is not possible.
Hope is Our Anchor
The writer of Hebrews tells us that hope is our anchor. It’s what tethers us to God. We cannot allow disappointment to steal our hope. If that happens, we are simply drifting out in the ocean somewhere without direction or purpose.
“God has given both His promise and His oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to Him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary” (Hebrews 6:18-19 NLT).
What is hope? It’s the foundation of faith in Hebrews 11:1 NLT. “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.” Faith, which is another of those things that last forever, is the result of our hope. We can’t see hope, but many times we can see our faith in action.
Environment for Healing
When we pray and have faith that God will answer, how He answers is a direct result of our faith. Hope, though, had to already be there for anything to happen. Take the story of the woman with the issue of blood. She had had this problem for 12 years. She couldn’t be around people. She had to live outside of towns. Think of how she washed her clothes. How she got her food. How she made a living.
She was living in disappointment, but she had hope that if she could somehow get through the crowd of people gathered around Jesus and just touch the hem of his garment she would be healed. Luke 8:44 NLT says, “Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.”
Her healing was a result of three things: her hope that Jesus could be heal her, her faith that it would happen if she could just touch his garment, and the power of Jesus.
Hope is the Foundation for Faith
Jesus verified her healing when He said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace” (Luke 8:48 NLT). For years she had lived in disappointment and then Jesus came along. Hope was infused in her. She thought, “If I can just get close enough, He will make me clean.” Hope is the foundation for faith, but both are necessary ingredients to live this Christian life.
Many times, when disappointments come our way, we sink into hopelessness. We’ve tried to fix our issues ourselves and it hasn’t worked, so we just give up. The devil loves to use any type of disappointment to make us quit. This is what he wants.
But God! God has a greater purpose in mind for our difficulties, troubles, trials, and disappointments. In the midst of everything falling apart, God wants us to trust Him. We need to go to Him with our disappointments. When everything feels hopeless, that’s when we need to renew our hope in God.
God Will Rescue Us
We can be disappointed about things that happen to us. If we still put our hope in God, He will rescue us. It may not be on our timetable, but He will do it. When everything is taken away from us, God is our only hope. He will keep the devil in his place. God is really good at disappointing the enemy if it helps advance us in some way.
Remember the story of Joseph? When his brothers appear before him, he says to them. “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people” (Genesis 50:20 NLT).
This was Joseph talking to his brothers, but it could have been me talking to the devil about my super morbid obesity. God used my disappointments about my enormous weight gain for good. Because when I finally listened to Him and lost weight, He put me on mission. He used me to write books, coach, speak, and start a podcast, which has now been going on for over three years. God knew I would fall into the devil’s temptations, but because I finally lost 250 pounds with His help, He’s using me to help others.
God Will Not Disappoint Us
David was often disappointed. In Psalms 27:14 TPT he said, “Here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Don’t give up; don’t be impatient; be entwined as one with the Lord. Be brave and courageous, and never lose hope. Yes, keep on waiting—for He will never disappoint you!”
In Psalms 33:20 TPT, David added, “The Lord alone is our radiant hope, and we trust in Him with all our hearts. His wraparound presence will strengthen us.”
Don’t let the devil steal your hope foundation. It is your security in the midst of life’s disappointments.
Teresa Shields Parker
