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July 23 - August 18, 2023
Though we can’t predict or control or demand the outcome of our circumstances, we can know with great certainty
we will be okay. Better than okay. Better than normal. We will be victorious because Jesus is victorious (1 Corinthians 15:57). And victorious people were never meant to settle for normal.
Sometimes to get your life back, you have to face the death of what you thought your life would look like.
The disappointment that is exhausting and frustrating you? It holds the potential for so much good. But we’ll only see it as good if we trust the heart of the Giver.
But disappointment isn’t proof that God is withholding good things from us. Sometimes it’s His way of leading us Home. But to see this and properly understand what’s really going on, we must take a step back and view it in the context of God’s epic love story. The one in which He rescues and reconciles humanity to Himself.
In the quiet, unexpressed, unwrestled-through disappointments, Satan is handcrafting his most damning weapons against us and those we love. It’s his subtle seduction to get us alone with our thoughts so he can slip in whispers that will develop our disappointments into destructive choices.
If the enemy can isolate us, he can influence us. And his favorite entry point of all is through our disappointments.
The enemy comes in as a whisper, lingers like a gentle breeze, and builds like a storm you don’t even see coming. But eventually his insatiable appetite to destroy will unleash the tornado of destruction he planned all along. He doesn’t whisper to our disappointed places to coddle us. He wants to crush us.
Remember, this is a love story. And we will never appreciate or even desire the hope of our True Love if lesser loves don’t disappoint. The piercing angst of disappointment in everything on this side of eternity creates a discontent with this world and pushes us to long for God Himself—and for the place where we will finally walk in the garden with Him again. Where we will finally have peace and security and eyes that no longer leak tears . . . and hearts that are no longer broken.
To wrestle well means acknowledging my feelings but moving forward, letting my faith lead the way.
In this restored garden of Eden the curse will be lifted and perfection will greet us like a long-lost friend.
We won’t need to wrestle well, because we will be well. Whole. Complete. Assured. Secure. Certain. Victorious. And brought full circle in our understanding of truth.
It was the timing that
fed this intense awareness that no matter how well I plan things, I can’t control them. No matter how well I think I know the people in my life, I can’t control them. No matter how well I follow the rules, do what’s right, and seek to obey God with my whole heart, I can’t control my life. I can’t control God.
And let’s be honest, if we weren’t ever disappointed, we’d settle for the shallow pleasures of this world rather than addressing the spiritual desperation of our souls.
If our souls never ached with disappointments and disillusionments, we’d never fully admit and submit to our need for God.
My controlling things would prevent the dust required for God to make the new He desperately desires for me.
If I want His promises, I have to trust His process.
have to trust that first comes the dust, and then comes the making of something even better with us. God isn’t ever going to forsake you, but He will go to great lengths to remake you.
What if disappointment is really the exact appointment your soul needs to r...
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Feeling the pain is the first step toward healing the pain. The longer we avoid the feeling, the more we delay our healing. We can numb it, ignore it, or pretend it doesn’t exist, but all those options lead to an eventual breakdown, not a breakthrough.
Our pain and suffering isn’t to hurt us. It’s to save us. To save us from a life where we are self-reliant, self-satisfied, self-absorbed, and set up for the greatest pain of all . . . separation from God.
God loves me too much to answer my prayers at any other time than the right time and in any other way than the right way.
Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. (Hebrews 3:1)
We just have to close our physical eyes and turn our thoughts to Jesus. Fix our thoughts on Him. Say His name over and over and over. God doesn’t want to be explained away. He wants to be invited in.
He wants us to be so consumed with our unmet expectations that our hearts just get sicker and sicker.
He wants our inner selves to get more and more disillusioned with our circumstances, other people, and God. He wants our pain to get more and more intense to the point we lose sight of Jesus completely.
I like that word compassion. It’s being aware that all of us fear the imperfections deeply carved into our naked selves. We all cover up. And then we all get stripped bare when the wins become losses.
those clothed with garments of understanding. They have personally experienced that this life between two gardens can sometimes make it excruciatingly painful to simply be human. They keep in mind the Bible’s instructions,
as we rub shoulders human to human. “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12).
from a heart of compassion that kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience naturally flow. Just as the best paintings have the most distinct focal point, God wants you and me, His favorite creations, to have the focal point of compassion.
If you have ever experienced an unexpected darkness, a silence and stillness you aren’t used to, know that these hard times, these devastating disappointments, these seasons of suffering are not for nothing.
They will grow you. They will shape you. They will soften you. They will allow you to experience God’s comfort and compassion. But you will find life-giving purpose and meaning when you allow God to take your painful experiences and comfort others. You will be able to share a unique hope because you know exactly what it feels like to be them.
People need to know God’s compassion is alive and well and winning the epic battle of good versus evil.
People need to know redemption is more than just a word.
Forget the cravings for comfort zones. Trade your comfort for compassion.
Don’t welcome hardness of heart as easiness of life.
We are imperfect because we are unfinished.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3–4)
My hope isn’t tied to whether or not a circumstance or another person
changes. My hope is tied to the unchanging promise of God. I hope for the good I know God will ultimately bring from this, whether the good turns out to match my desires or not.
Longsuffering means having or showing patience despite troubles, especially those caused by other people.
know I must walk through God’s process before I see His fulfilled promise.
God has to take me through the process of getting unstuck from what’s been holding me captive before I can take a stand.
We’ve talked about the process on the way to the promise. But we must not forget His presence in the midst of the process.
We read the book of Job in the context of knowing the restoration that comes at the end. It helps us not feel the true intensity of Job’s pain.
The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. (Job 42:12)
If God thought we could handle the promise today, He’d lift us up today. But if we aren’t standing on that firm rock, singing a glorious song, it’s because He loves us too much to lift us up there right now. This process isn’t a cruel way to keep you from the promise; it’s the exact preparation you’ll need to handle the promise.
When we think the process of longsuffering is unbearable, we must remember it would be deadly for God to put us up on that solid rock before we are strong, firm, and steadfast. And it would be cruel for Him to require us to sing before we have a song.
God isn’t far off. He’s just far more interested in your being prepared than in your being comfortable.
