On Responding to Disappointment
My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees.
Psalm 119:71 NLT
Our daily choice: react or respond to life’s unexpected setbacks and mind-boggling disappointments (Heb. 12:14-15). Reacting is being angry at our circumstances, frustrated with people, and despondent at not getting our way (James 1:20).
Responding sees the bigger picture: God has an appointment in our disappointment. It is not God’s will that people sin, but when God allows their sin to touch our lives, then their actions have become God’s will for us (2 Cor. 4:7-12). To grow deeper in our relationship with the Lord, we must have a yielded heart: a willingness to allow God to use our trials and tribulations to produce the life of Christ in us (Phil 1:29; 3:10). In order to grow spiritually, we trust God’s sovereign purposes. He is using selfish people, hard places, and broken things to give us our heart’s desire: genuine Christlikeness (Rom. 8:17).
Responding believes that our Heavenly Father has a divine appointment in the midst of our various trials and setbacks. It trusts God’s goodness knowing that God’s sovereign hand is operating in and through the baffling and trying times of life.
We may not understand “why,†but we choose to trust our Heavenly Father who is good, loving, and gracious. We believe that the Father has our best in mind and is not rejecting us by allowing various difficulties in our lives (Heb. 12:7-12).
Responding comes forth from a thankful heart drawing us into the Holy Spirit’s wellspring of grace (Heb. 12:14-15). Responding says “yes†to God and looks for opportunities to grow in our intimate love relationship with Christ. In short, responding is confident that God has an appointment in our disappointment.
Disappointment, His Appointment
Disappointment-His appointment, change one letter
Then I see, that the thwarting of my purpose is God’s better choice for me.
His appointment must be blessing, though it may come in disguise.
For the end from the beginning, open to his wisdom lies.
Disappointment-His appointment, whose?
The Lord’s who loves me best,
Understands and knows me fully, Who my faith and love would test.
For like loving, earthly parent,
He rejoices when He knows,
That his child accepts unquestioned all that from His wisdom flows.
Disappointment-His appointment,
No good thing will He withhold, from denials oft we gather,
Treasures of His love untold,
Well He knows each broken purpose leads to fuller deeper trust,
And the end of all His dealings, proves our God is wise and just.
Disappointment-His appointment,
Lord, I take it then as such,
Like the clay in hands of potter yielding wholly to Thy touch.
All my life’s plan is Thy molding, not one single choice be mine,
Let me answer unrepining Father not my will but THINE.
Lyrics: Anonymous
Made popular by Phil Keaggy
Album: “Love Broke Thru”