So I do not have all the answers to disappointment. I think there are many things that we will not fully understand about God for probably a very long time. But I do think God gives us enough evidence to believe if we choose. Therefore, I attempt to share some of the things recently that have helped me in my disappointment with God.
When we are in pain and struggling with something big in our lives, we want to believe in a big God that will come to our rescue and sweep in and save us like we have read in so many books. Even many Christian inspirational books are full of stories of miracles and amazing things that happen to people who have prayed and believed. Their loved one was saved, or cancer cured, or recieved money right before a house was to be foreclosed.
I get caught not so much with earthly things lately but with spiritual things. I am praying for someone and suddenly things get worse and they are doing worse and seem farther away from God than before I started praying. Or I try to fast and pray to get closer to God and a veil seems to fall over me and I feel totally disconnected, worse off than when I started. It's these things where I lose my way.
My thoughts are "God surely wants to save this person. It has to be His will" "God surely wants me to draw nearer to Him, this has to be in His will" Now are these things true? Yes!
- 1 Timothy 2: 3-4 - "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" NIV
- James 4:8 - "Come near to God and he will come near to you..." NIV
What can we expect from God?
- He will never leave us.
- He will work out things for our best.
- He will give us the Holy Spirit freely.
- He will forgive us if we confess.
- He will finish the good work He started in us.
- (I'm sure there are more you could add to the list)
So how do we as Christians believe in a messed up world and trust even when we have been greatly disappointed? It is not easy sometimes. When I was researching this topic the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came to my mind and what they told King Nebuchadnezzar.
- Daniel 3:17-18 - "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
So I guess for me I realize, in light of my disappointment, that I was building up great expectations and attaching them to my faith. That somehow if these things don't work out, God is not who He says He is. The devil loves to try and get us to believe this in our disappointment and pain. I realized I am putting God in a box and demanding He prove Himself to me, rather than trusting the hundreds of other things He has done in my life. I am not believing that no matter what things appear, He IS working things out for good spiritually and eternally beyond my view.
- 2 Corinthians 4:18 - "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" NIV