2 Corinthians 12:8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
God’s plans will always be more beautiful and greater than all your disappointments.
Disappointment can bankrupt our soul and darken it with bleakness. It can wound us with the agony of regret. Psychologists say that disappointment can feel physically ‘heavy in your body’ and burdensome at times and can involve unhelpful and negative thoughts. Disappointment can cause emotional turmoil and leave us sad, frustrated, embarrassed, worried, angry, envious, guilty, confused, agitated, rejected, hopeless and helpless. The most intense emotions that we wade through are rejection and worthlessness. Disappointment can be debilitating; it can drain our hope and derail us from our purpose. Hence, the wrong notion – “Expect nothing and you will never be disappointed” has become popular. Expectations give life to hope. Expectation should never die or rather, we must never allow disappointment to empty our expectations and kill hope.
The Apostle Paul had an unanswered petition. We are not sure if he prayed for a physical ailment or any other need but Bible scholars presume it was a physical illness. The Lord God gave him grace to endure but did not heal him. However, God’s ‘no’ as an answer to his petition did not derail him from his purpose. Paul survived three shipwrecks, he was flogged five times with thirty-nine lashes, beaten with a rod three times by the Romans and stoned once yet, the thorn in his flesh did not stop him from preaching the gospel until his last breath. The disappointment did not discourage him.
It is very important to understand that when God gives us the grace to endure something it will not restrict us from fulfilling our responsibilities to our family or our duties and functionalities as an ambassador of Christ. If it does, then the thorn must be prayed out of our lives. Do not accept a physical sickness/illness and allow it to kill your passion and steal your purpose. Delay is not denial.
Disappointed but not Discouraged:
1. Derail: We must not stop praying and pursuing with perseverance about an unanswered prayer that derails our passion and purpose. It is not God’s plan for us to hobble through life. He wants us to run a race with fervor and ferocity. Don’t let disappointment derail you.
2. Drain: Don’t allow your disappointment to drain your hope. Paul boldly confessed, No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:28).
3. Debilitate: Don’t let the disappointment debilitate your future and your functionality. God will give us all that we need to fulfill His plan. We will never fall short of any good thing.
Don’t let disappointment debilitate and derail your future.
2 Corinthians 12:8b Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
Prayer: Father God, teach me to win over disappointment and accomplish all that you have planned for me. Amen
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