Meditation Moments 76: "DISAPPOINTMENT"

         I want to give you this Verse from 2 Corinthians 1:10, "For it is God who rescued us from such a perilous death, and He will still rescue us. And on Him have we set our hope that He will again deliver us from danger and destruction and draw us to Himself."
         I have been thinking a great deal about those who have suffered disappointment. The word "disappointment" has been on my mind a great deal. You know, some people take disappointment so differently than others. There are those that have so grown in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and are mature Christians, that they don't worry when there is some disappointment.
         No matter how much they look forward to some occasion, or some dear one coming or something they expected, if it doesn't mature, the thing they wanted so badly doesn't happen, that doesn't seem to move them at all! They are like the Apostle Paul.
         They are such steadfast, immovable Christians, they can say, "None of these things move me." (Acts 20:24.) -- And it's true about them! They've gotten so grounded in the Word of God and so close to the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ that they take all things as from Him.
         They accept all that happens in their life as if it came from His hand, and to them there are not any disappointments! There is a little poem which reads, "Disappointment just take the letter "D" off and put "H" there and it's His appointment!"
         These mature Christians, so grounded, so established in the Word, just take any disappointment as His appointment for them! To be so deeply disappointed and to get your heart broken over disappointments is almost childish, and Paul said that when he was old he put away childish things, and that he thought as a man and spoke as a man.
         I remember as a child when my father was pastor of the Christian Church in St. Louis, Missouri and they'd planned a large picnic at Forrest Park and oh, I was looking forward to it so! There had been great preparations, lunch was ready and there had been a bustling about the house all morning long getting ready for that afternoon picnic.
         And suddenly clouds came and it just poured down raining! I was so broken-hearted that I wept and I moped for the rest of the evening! I've had similar things happen since then, but never any disappointments or an attitude of that kind.
         I pray that God will keep us all in that place where we accept sweetly His Will! I ran across such a precious poem and I believe it will be a blessing to your heart:
         It does not matter
         What it means, poor heart,
         The dear Lord knows.
         To bear it is your part.
         Nor think some
         Strange thing happened unto you
         Which He would not allow
         If He knew.
         Well He does know!
         In all His Fatherhood
         He knows and allows it for your good
         He is not hard.
         You do not think He is
         When in the dark
         You find your hand in His.
         When it was light
         You tried to walk alone
         And thought the strength
         He gave you
         All your own.
         You did not ask
         What that last blessing meant,
         Just smiled and took it,
         Satisfied, content.
         You didn't think it strange,
         You thought He knew,
         And planned the sweet surprise
         That came to you.
         Then do you, tried one,
         Take life sweet and good
         Yet cannot trust
         That tender Fatherhood?
         But think It makes mistakes
         Whene'er it sends some hindrance
         Which your eager haste offends?
         Or when He lets the wicked
         Plot you harm
         And stir a whirlwind
         When you seek a calm?
         You think it strange, this disappointment so keen,
         And in your weakness ask, "What does it mean?"
         I think the language
         Of God's heart would read,
         "I love my child
         I note his slightest need.
         I long to prosper him
         In all his ways
         To give him quiet nights
         And peaceful days.
         But if I do
         He'll lose himself from Me,
         My outstretched hand
         He will wait to see,
         I'll place a hindering wall
         Before his feet,
         And there he'll wait,
         And there we two will meet.
         I do it not in wrath
         For broken laws
         Or willful disobedience,
         But because I want him near Me
         And I cannot wait
         For him to come
         For he might wander late.
         My child will wonder,
         Will not understand,
         Still half in doubt
         He'll clasp My outstretched hand.
         And when at last
         Upon My heart he leans,
         He will have ceased to wonder
         What it means."
         You wonder what the disappointment means? Oh my friend, He isn't any disappointment! If you'll trust everything in His hands, then all your glowing day dreams you'd fancied, Christ to be in them!
         The more I get to know Him
         The more I find Him true
         The more I long that others
         Should be led to know Him too!

         He's no disappointment! Put everything in His hands, and if something like that comes, it shall work for good for you, through Him. Amen.



Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family -- This file has not been proofread.