Handling Disappointment

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.” Romans 8:28 NLT

If you’ve been alive for any amount of time, you have felt disappointment. Disappointment can hit on a small scale, like wishing the weather was something different; to a large scale like being betrayed by someone you love. No one is immune.

My Pastor taught an amazing message Sunday and I wanted to share my notes with you. I am currently dealing with a huge disappointment in my life, so this message was timely.

A lot of times in life, our reality doesn’t line up with our expectations. When things happen, we tend to abandon our relationship with God, instead of turning to Him for comfort.

There are 2 people paths to take when something disappoints us:

1. Blame God. Many people do this, and part of the reason we do is because we have one mind set that is not really accurate. God is amazing, He is every where, all the time. He is in CHARGE. But He is not always in CONTROL.

Let me explain: Say you are a teacher in a classroom with 25 kids. You are in charge, right? You are the adult. But each one of those 25 kids has free will and can make choices to misbehave or not. So, 10 of them get rowdy and start acting up. Are you in control? No. They are doing their own thing. You are, however, still in charge.

It’s the same with us. God gave us FREE WILL. But He is a gentleman. He will not over ride that freedom.

Some of our disappointments come from choices we make that had nothing to do with God. Maybe we were doing things our way, and not His.  He is NOT to blame for every disappointment we face.

2. Embrace the goodness of God. Psalm 119:38 Some people take disappointments, and see the good in it. They don’t blame God because they understand the truth behind who He is. My Pastor has coined a phrase for our church, “If it’s not good, it’s not God.” God is LOVE and Goodness. It’s not what He does, it’s WHO HE IS. Bad things happen to us, yes. But God is always good and nothing can stop Him from it.

So, I can hear you now, “Well, if God is so good, why do bad things happen to good people?” I’m glad you asked.

The Bible says that we live in a fallen, sinful world. There is a “ruler’ of this world, and he is always planning things against us. God will allow us to make decisions with our free will, then we have to face the consequences. He’s a good Father. He can’t always get us out of our mess. Sometimes we have to walk through things to learn lessons and grow.

3 more things we need to embrace are: Mystery, our purpose, and worship.

In our “Google It” society, we want to know the answers to everything. We are not comfortable with mystery, but sometimes, that is how God works. He does not tell us everything we will face. He does not give us a laid out plan for our future. He wants us to trust Him, even when we don’t know what’s going to happen.

God has given us all a purpose. You are not here just to pay bills until you die. God has something He has gifted you with that He wants you to use for His glory.

We have to worship Him, even in the hard times. It sucks. Believe me, I know…but man, when we worship Him in the storm anyway, what a huge difference it makes. Your burdens lift, and you feel light. We need to worship our way through disappointment.

Listen, this is a season. It will not always be this way. Ok? I promise.

And by all means, remember the verse I posted above. God is a promise maker, and promise keeper. If He says He will turn it around for your good, He will.

God bless you today and always!