Truth

What do you do with your disappointments?

Miss Havisham and Pip, in an illustration for ...

Miss Havisham and Pip, in an illustration for the Household Edition of Dickens's Great Expectations. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock” (Psalm 27:5).

John and Mary had only lived in their dream home for 6 months before it was set ablaze by an electrical fire. “What am I going to do now?” John asked, looking up to the heavens. With tears running down his cheeks, he exclaimed “I have spent every penny I had on this house, and now everything is going up in smoke.” “Life is so f—ing unfair!”

I am sure you have heard the phrase, “Life is so unfair,” perhaps multiple times before.” People usually use this phrase when they are faced with unusual circumstances, such as disappointments. Dealing with disappointments can be difficult. Each of us deals with our disappointments differently.

What do you do with your disappointments?

You could do what Miss Havisham did in Charles Dickens‘s novel, Great Expectations? Abandoned by her intended just before her wedding, Miss Havisham froze in time.  She closed all the blinds in the house, stopped every clock, left the wedding cake on the table to gather cobwebs, and wore her wedding dress until it hung in yellow decay around her shrunken body. Her wounded heart consumed her life.

We can follow the same course, or we can follow the example of the apostle Paul. Intended to be a missionary in Spain, the apostle ended up in a Roman Jail. Sitting in jail, Paul could have made the same choice as Miss Havisham, but he didn’t. Instead he said, “As long as I am here, I might as well write a few letters.” Hence your Bible has the epistles to Philemon, the Philippians, the Colossians, and the Ephesians.

Paul made the best of his difficult situation. He never gave up and he never felt sorry for himself. He knew that the happiest people don’t necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.

I am not saying this because I am in need, but I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 For I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13)

The strength of Love

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. . .

A young man sat trembling in the police station. He had been picked up for shoplifting and now he waited for his parents, who were on their way to take him home. Being arrested was frightening and embarrassing. but it wasn’t half as bad as having to face his mother and father.

As they burst through the door the young man saw that his mother had been crying. He bowed his head in shame and awaited the fury to come from his parents. Instead, he felt his mother’s arm wrap around his shoulders and his father’s big, warm hand on top of his head. He looked up through tears and saw that both of his parents were watching him with love and concern.

The boy asked, “Aren’t you angry with me? Why aren’t you yelling at me?”

His mother spoke. “Honey, when you hurt, we only want to help you. You have done wrong, but that doesn’t mean we stop loving you. What you did hurts us, but we’ll work it out together.” (Adapted)

God loves us every bit as much. No matter what happens, if we work to find God, we will find love we never thought possible.

Dear heavenly Father, I fall prey to so much temptation and sin. I am ashamed that I cannot do what you would like for me to do. Thank you for your forgiveness and love, especially in times when I don’t deserve it. Amen.

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Keep your eyes on God

King Jehoshaphat on a 17th century painting by...

King Jehoshaphat on a 17th century painting by unknown artist in the choir of Sankta Maria kyrka in Åhus, Sweden. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no might against this great multitude that is coming against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon you’ (2 Chronicles 21:12).

King Jehoshaphat was confounded by the size of the army that was coming to attack Israel. So, instead of relying on his own wisdom and the strength of his army, he sought God’s intervention; he prayed:

“O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you— for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’ And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy—  behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? We are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you” (2 Chronicles 20:5-12).

In your own strength and in your own wisdom you are vulnerable, but God never wants you to be in a place where you are dependent upon yourself. God never wants your confidence to rest upon your own understanding.

  • It is one thing to know that there is a great enemy against you; it is another to know that God is greater than any enemy you face.
  • It is one thing to know that you are weak; it is another thing to know that God is all-powerful.
  •  It is one thing to know that you don’t have all the answers; it is another thing to know that God has perfect wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

You will never face defeat as long as your eyes are upon, and your trust is in the One who knows no defeat.

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Who am I that God should be generous toward me?

English: Saint paul arrested

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“I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I have persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).

It is amazing how humble the apostle Paul had become after his conversion. A zealous tax collector by trade, Saul wreaked havoc on the early Church. He was hated and feared by many. Yet God saw it fit to grant him favor and used him to grow the Church.

But Paul understood that he was not worthy of God’s grace and generosity and neither do you nor I, or anyone else in this world. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). In a letter to the Church in Ephesus, Paul exhorts the Church that salvation is not earned; It’s a gift from God. Here is what Paul writes: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Who do you know that would give you a gift for doing nothing?  It is hard to find one person, yet that’s exactly what Jesus did! Furthermore, when you look at your life and compare it to God’s life, it becomes quite overwhelming and unfathomable to realize that you are a recipient of His love. When you compare your sins, your failures, and your defeats with His holiness, goodness, and righteousness, it can prompt you to ask, “Who am I that God should generous toward me?”

Still  as hard as it might be to fully comprehend, the fact remains that the Creator of all things, the omnipotent God has sent His Son, Jesus Christ into this world and then into your life. Believe it or not, “little insignificant you and me” are recipients of Almighty God’s all-encompassing, all-embracing, goodness, kindness and generosity in Jesus Christ.

God, in His mercy and grace, delights in giving the highest to the lowliest, the greatest to the smallest, the fullest to the emptiest, and the mightiest to the weakest.

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Are you burdened with the weight of unforgiveness?

English: White tulips

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For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:15-15).

One weight that God does not want you to carry is the weight of unforgiveness. Yet many in the body of Christ find it difficult to forgive. Unforgiveness not only affects your spiritual growth, but it also weighs heavily on your emotional and physical well-being.

The apostle Peter, a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ, and a stalwart of the early Church, struggled with the weight of unforgiveness. He hated the Gentiles. He referred to them as common and unclean. He even refused to preach the gospel to them. There is no evidence that the apostle Peter ever reconcile his differences with the Gentiles.

In the book of Matthew chapter 18:21-22, Jesus uses Peter’s struggle to teach us how to forgive. If we followed His instructions the world will be a better place:

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven

Unforgiveness is an attitude of the heart that abides outside the law of love. To walk in forgiveness is to walk in great spiritual freedom. Your heart is light when it does not carry grudge, bitterness, or resentment. To forgive does not mean that you agree with the offence that someone has committed, or that you support it in any way.

To forgive means that you choose to release the judgment you are carrying toward someone, even though that person did something that was unkind or unfair. The choice to forgive is not based on fairness or justice, but on mercy and grace. Mercy triumphs over judgment when you choose to forgive. Jesus did not carry any grudge against the people who nailed Him to the cross. Instead, He showed mercy by saying; “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

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