Hope and Disappointment

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for…” Hebrews 11:1

Several friends and I are daring to believe God to change us and some of our circumstances. For various reasons, we are afraid we will not make it this time and either stay in patterns and habits that do not get us where we want to be or we will fail and be worse off than when we started. None of us wants to contemplate the cost of perceived failure.

Disappointment is an interesting emotion. To be disappointed means to be “defeated in expectation or hope” (merriam-webster.com). We hope for something or expect something and if we do not get it we feel disappointed. We feel defeated. String together enough defeated expectations and hopes and we start to give up or give in. We stop hoping and expecting and believing for something to happen. Eventually, we give up and settle for whatever state we are in adopting an “I don’t care” attitude.

Disappointments are a part of life. There is no avoiding them. Disappointments, like failures, do not have to be defeating and they are not the end of the world even though they may feel like it.

I have already had a significant disappointment today. But it’s okay. I decided that I will let God be the God of my disappointments. I will turn my disappointments over to Him and dare to keep believing. I will make whatever adjustments I need to make because those who put their hope in God will never be disappointed (Psalm 25:3).

What about you? What are you doing with your disappointments? Do not run from them or ignore them. Take them to a God Who loves you more than you can imagine. He is a God Who wants only the best for you. Put your hope in Him and you will not be disappointed.

Recommendation: Go to biblegateway.net and do a search on the word “hope.” Read the passages from the Bible that have the word “hope” or a variation of “hope” in them. Be encouraged and learn to put your hope in God and trust Him with your disappointments.

Walk by Faith and Not by Sight

I’ve been in some emotional turmoil for a while experiencing doubt and fear despite trusting God and letting Him be the director of my life. I am obeying whatever He tells me to do, but I have been having a difficult time when looking to the future. To be honest, I am at a level of obedience for the first time in my life where every commitment and responsibility I have has been given to me by God. I am not executing any plan of my own and I am out of my comfort zone in every way. The only thing that seems constant in my life right now is feeding my fish every night!

God is running the show and I trust Him. But He isn’t sharing the entire plan with me. All I know is the activity of the moment. I do not know what all of my obedience will ultimately produce and, as a result, I have fallen into a questioning attitude.

Have you ever had a questioning attitude? A questioning attitude goes something like this:

Why am I doing this? I just don’t see what good it’s doing. What am I going do with this anyway? I just don’t see how I’m going to get through this. How will all this workout?

I got lost in this questioning attitude and began to experience discouragement and confusion. Whenever I experience these emotions, I know that I have to stop trying to figure things out and surrender it all back to God. As I laid it all at God’s feet this last weekend I realized that it’s okay that I do not see the plan. It is okay not to see because I choose to walk by faith not by sight. If I could see what was ahead…if I could see what this was going to do for me…if I could see how this will benefit me then I would not be walking by faith.

I felt God telling me that I could walk by faith or by the sight and the choice is all mine. Walking by sight would require me to put my plan in place and work with my limited ability and knowledge and understanding. Walking by faith requires me to obey the God Who knows everything and trust Him to know what is right for me even though I cannot see the end goal. The reason I can say “I don’t see…” is because I walk by faith and faith goes after something that cannot be seen.

When we walk by faith we cannot see what is ahead. More often than not, all we can see is the last thing God told us to do. As long as we are doing the last thing God told us to do we are being obedient and God always honors obedience. In God’s time, when He is ready and we are ready, He will reveal the next step of His plan for us. Until God reveals the next step, we must remember that we walk by faith and not by sight.