Beware the Drama of Disappointment

By Jon Srock on May 1, 2023

HCC Monthly Harvest Seed

Deuteronomy 34:4 - Then the Lord said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.

Can you imagine Moses getting to see the promised land? Getting to see how good it was. Getting to see the promises that God gave to the Children of Israel that they had held onto for generations and then being told that you would not get to enter into it.

Talk about disappointment. One preacher called Mount Nebo – The Mountain of Disappointment.  The truth is all of us have been on that mountain in our life at one point or another.  There are times when life just does not go our way or the way we were hoping for.  Disappointment is that let down feeling when our emotions bottom out and our faith and trust in God is tested.

It is never easy to deal with disappointment. Let’s just be honest about that. It is not easy to live through. It is real and it will visit us from time to time. Learning to live and work through disappointment will save us from a life of bitterness, sadness and resentment.  To understand disappointment, we just need to look at the word. – It implies that we believed that we had an appointment. When we got to the appointment, the place, or a certain thing that was supposed to happen – didn’t happen. The appointment with destiny that you thought you had wasobliterated by the reality of the day. You have been dis-appointed.

Anytime that our hopes are not realized or our expectations or our desires are not fulfilled we can feel disappointment.

Disappointment can be a passing emotion over a temporary loss, or it may impact us powerfully when something permanently changes our lives.

It is important to understand that disappointment is not a sin.

Many of God’s people experience disappointment. Joseph when he was sold into slavery. The disciples were devastated when Jesus was hung on the cross. Hannah was disappointed that she could not have a child. So much so that she went to the temple and cried out to God. Job was certainly disappointed, we read all about his conversations with God. Jobs wife was so disappointed that she told her husband to curse God and die. How we handle disappointments is important.

Disappointments can bring us to a crossroads where we have two options;

  1. We can surrender to hopelessness. IF we choose this road and give into anguish and disappointment, we will spend our days in a fog of unbelief.

All of us have known people who have chosen the road of despair. These men and women have wounds and hurts that are so deep that they are no longer able to accept hope from God’s word or comfort from people who truly love and care for them.  They became so wrapped up in frustration and sadness that they no longer trusted what anyone said to them, not even in the Bible.

Disappointment is a trap set by our enemy that is meant to erode our confidence in God and in people. If we are not careful it is easy to grow skeptical of people and cynical about everything. This is when we get in the dangerous position of blaming God for our troubles. Grumbling and complaining. Our prayers become whiny and powerless.

When we get this way, we will never trust people or risk allowing them to get close.

Disappointment often times leads to disobedience to the ways of God. We begin to take things into our own hands and plan our own ways. Never allow disappointment to become disobedience.

When we do this, we no longer are walking in the blessing of God but in His displeasure.  We must make sure that we never allow OUR disappointment to become HIS displeasure.

  • The other road is to trust ourselves into the hands of a caring and loving God. They say things like: “I don’t like what I am going through, I do not understand what I am going through, what I am dealing with hurts…BUT… I serve a mighty God who is in control, who loves me and who is working all things out for my good.

To combat disappointment, we must refuse to doubt.

Disappointment is the first seed of doubt that intrudes on our faith.

It can be the tip of the wedge that will hinder our spiritual growth and make us bitter and defeated.

If doubt festers in us it turns to discouragement, discouragement becomes disillusionment and that leads us to depression and eventually we resign ourselves to defeat.

Keep believing and trusting in God.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 - We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—

Dis-appointment in life can quickly be changed by altering our attitude and one letter.

Change dis-appointment to HIS- appointment.

To overcome disappointment, you must allow yourself to grieve.

Grieving is to loss what healing is to sickness.

Grieving is a process. – It is not only ok, but it is necessary to process disappointment.

Never say to a wounded person – “Hey, you shouldn’t be disappointed, snap out of it”.

You don’t just “Get over” disappointment, you work though it with God.

Work through the bitterness, anger, loss, disbelief, and awe that this is happening with God.

Disappointment brings confusion and disorientation. It is good to find your balance and gain your footing.

~ Someone said – Don’t just get over it or it will have the ability to get back on top of you.

Hannah was so disappointed that she couldn’t have children that she cried out to God. She went to the house of God and poured out her heart. She was angry, hurt and confused but she took all of that to God to work on it.

Because she did God blessed her with Samuel AND other sons and daughters.

Naomi lost her husband and her sons. She was so overcome with grief that it changed her so profoundly that she changed her name to Bitter. It is ok to grieve our disappointment, but we must not allow it to change our identity.

All of us at some point in our lives experience disappointment.

My prayer is that for all of us we will learn to trust God and grow through our experiences.

My Friend God desires for us to be better and stronger in all that we have experienced in life. May God heal, restore and refresh you this month.

Remember that you are loved.
Pastor Marvin & Dawn

Image by Elias from Pixabay

Back to Posts
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram