1 Kings 19:3-4 Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose finite hope” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Don’t run from the battle of disappointment. Confront and defeat it, if not disappointment will push you into depression. Disappointment is a result of unmet expectations. Disappointment frustrates and kills hope if we don’t fight back the hounding and distressing thoughts. Disappointment will push us into depression if we fail to retaliate.
Elijah was hit with a thunderbolt of disappointment after the greatest achievement in his ministry. Elijah pronounced a famine on the land and there was no rain or dew for 3 ½ years. Then he commanded King Ahab and his pagan sorcerers to meet him at Mt. Carmel where he brought fire from heaven. After he won the challenge against the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, he got the people to slaughter the occultists. Thereafter he prayed and the heavens opened and rain drenched the parched land. Elijah was walking on the heights of his success, so he expected the wicked Queen Jezebel to come and greet him and bow down before the Almighty God. Instead, she sent him a threatening death notice, “by this time tomorrow you will be dead” (paraphrased). Great disappointment pushed him into deep depression. One of the signs of depression is when people lose the drive to live. “There is no worse death than dead hope”. Disappointment drove Elijah from the pinnacle of success to the dregs of death in 24 hours.
Fight disappointment. Fight the hounding thoughts of hopelessness. Don’t allow disappointment to kill hope and drain away your happiness.
Fight the battle of disappointment:
1. Hope: Unmet expectation kills hope and gravitates us towards depression. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life (Proverbs 13:12). Don’t make permanent decisions based on temporary emotions. It is human to be saddened by disappointment but get out of sorrow and melancholy as quickly as possible. The longer we stay in the pit of disappointment the darker our vision for the future will become. Talk to the Lord; reiterate the promises and sing a song of praise to reinstate hope.
2. Hound: Dwelling and brooding over disappointment invites the demonic intruders to hound streaks of despondency. This is why when we are disappointed with an issue all the past frustrations start flooding into our thoughts. Demons wait to incite us with depression and hopelessness. Fight against the hounding depressing demonic thoughts.
3. Happiness: ‘Happiness depends on happenings but joy depends on Jesus’. A temporary loss of happiness should not terminate a relationship, friendship or worship. Don’t let the disappointment steal your joy. Worship turns hopelessness into happiness.
Disappointment that takes root bears fruits of depression.
Psalm 42:11 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, when disappointment hounds me with hopelessness and steals my happiness, help me to remain joyful and cheerful in you. Amen.
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