How to deal with disappointment in your life
How to we deal with that which is inevitable in this life, disappointment?
This week we drove past Turnersville on our way to my daughters college tour in Stephenville. It’s beautiful how God will cause us to pause, and to remember.
It was Thursday December 16th, 2016.
Earlier that week my little four year old and I had visited Turnersville for the first time. I was in the shower when I began to do a motion like I was pulling up onions from the ground.
The Lord had shown me interesting things through prayer before, but this scared me.
What I pulled up from the “ground” was a head. A massive giant head.
Immediately He brought to my mind the story of David and Goliath. I screamed out and said, “Lord, what in the world!”
“And David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem…” 1 Samuel 17:54 Then these words came to mind, “the giant has been defeated”.
I began to praise The Lord for what He was choosing to reveal to me, and I finished getting ready. As we were loading up to leave my little boy, eagerly searched through his DVDs asking for Mama to let him watch a movie on the car ride.
This one mommy, this one! “Dave and the giant pickle”. Of course.
Lord, what is happening? This is just too much. I don’t know what you are going to do, but thank you!!! I believe I will see what you have promised!
An Invitation
Three very special ladies surrounded me and prayed with me. We prayed for hours though it seemed we had only prayed for minutes. We were not in the same room.
It was like we had been transported into the Heavenly Realm, into the very court room of Heaven.
I want you to lean in close, what I am about to share with you is sacred and it changed my life, forever.
If God can do it for me, I know He can do it for you.
If God revealed to me this beauty in the midst of devastation I know He can do it for you. I am not more special than any of you, my beautiful sisters.
I am only a daughter who longs to see Him in all things and at all times.
How Father will choose to reveal the depths of His love and wisdom is up to Him alone.
My hope is only to invite and inspire you to sit with Father.
He is calling us in, to a deeper place of intimacy than we have ever known. Will we enter in?
He is standing at the door knocking, will we let Him in? Will we accept His invitation?
Grab your bibles, your pens and notebooks and sit, sit with Him.
We gathered around the table. My dear sister in Christ began to pray, by the end of our prayer I saw a hand come down, on a legal document, it read these words, “CANCELED”.
The plans of the enemy over my daughters life were canceled.
I cannot tell you why God allowed me to see this, but He did.
One of my most dearest friend who could see so clearly in the spirit is now with King Jesus, I miss her. People like the women I gathered with and Dana challenged my faith, they led me straight into the loving arms of my Savior.
They had faith to believe what I had never seen. I had only read about in His Word.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise. Psalms 100:4
Will we dare to believe that the works Father did at one point He can still do in our lives today?
O’ that we would have eyes to see!
Faith to believe. Ask Him with me, Lord increase my faith, take my simple faith Lord and do with it as you will, for your Kingdom for your glory and our good Father, in Jesus Name we pray Abba, Amen.
Like the time Peter was praying so intently that He went into a trance (Acts 10:10-15).
What in the world Lord? How does this even happen? What is our role to play in this life of faith?
A life that is often filled with so much disappointment? “Father, I have this faith you have provided, do with it as you will.” I often pray.
That is our part. Faith. A faith that He provides. There is no striving in this place.
I was absolutely undone. I knew with certainty God had done it. God had healed our baby girl.
In this post I share how to have hope in impossible situations, I share more of our story there.
We had a scan on Thursday and I just knew, my physical eyes would finally see what God had been speaking all along! I will see!
Our appointment time came, they began my ultrasound, but this time, they didn’t even mention the measurement of her little head.
Would they have to intervene almost two months early? This already fragile baby as they saw her would not survive being born prematurely on top of these terminal diagnosis.
“We will keep an eye out, we really don’t want to have to deliver sooner than 37 weeks, but if her head gets to 42cm before then, we will have to.”
I was stunned. Did I make it all up? The legal document with the words “CANCELED”, and on and on it went in my head.
I came home, crawled into the fetal position in our bed, a bed that held my body shape from that season of climbing up into it. A safe place from the storm. I began to weep.
I said Father, I don’t understand, I thought I would get to see Lord.
“Not yet child, only believe.” I felt the weight of tremendous disappointment.
During this season in our pregnancy Holy Spirit had helped me to create a playlist on my Spotify account. It was a sacred playlist He and I curated together. He said, hit the play button. Melissa Helser’s song came on, “On the shores”
When I tell you God is kind. I know Him to be kind. I have seen His kindness in my life over and over again, even in seasons of deep pain.
He will not leave us alone. He will meet us. He will cause His joy to arise deep within us, even in sorrow.
Because joy is not dependent on our circumstances but on who He is! He is joy. He is Peace. And He offers these to us, amidst the disappointments and pain. He offers us Himself.
I would eventually see what Papa had promised, a little over a month later.
A beautiful, strong, healthy baby girl, who needed brain surgery to help with all the extra fluid in her brain.
He had been right all along, hydrocephalus would not define her, but this didn’t mean it would be easy or that we wouldn’t experience setbacks and more disappointments, Here I share how we keep moving forward.
Abide in Me
Abide in me, and I in you. I cannot over emphasis this enough.
Jesus is the gift. He is the answer. When we come to Papa, weary and broken-down. He gives us Himself. His very best. His Son.
Everything else will leave us empty, eventually everything has to change again. The only thing that is constant in this life, change.
But God? He never changes. He remains the same. This is good news. We know what to expect with Him. While we can’t control the outcome of how things will turn out in our lives, we can rest knowing He cares.
He will heal. He will save. He will deliver. In His timing. In the way in which He chooses. And if He chooses to answer in a way we did not expect we can trust Him to heal our broken hearts. Here I share with you how to trust God in the unknowns of life.
If I am honest, I did not want brain surgery for my baby girl. I wanted The Lord to miraculously open up the blockage/narrowing of the valve in her brain.
That is not what Papa chose and most days my heart is at peace with this decision. Sometimes fear creeps in and whispers turmoil into my mind which I now know I can combat.
When I remember to take my thoughts captive and make them submit to Christ, rest and peace return.
It is vital that we understand that God has given us the ability to think new thoughts.
Please know that when I share this with you, I also understand that there are times in our lives, or there are different illness’, injuries that we may be dealing with that can make it nearly impossible to do this.
I have been here, many times in my life.
Battling anxiety and depression. Horrible obtrusive thoughts. These are so difficult and painful. If this is you, I don’t want to make light of your pain.
Please hear me say this with the most compassion and love.
As best as we can, we stop and we think about what we are thinking about. I ask myself, does this thought align with what I know to be true of God? Does this thought align with Gods Word? If it doesn’t, I ask Father to help me replace the lie with the truth.
He is kind. The more we take these thoughts captive, the more easily it will be to recognize when we are believing a lie.
At eight years old my darling girl is well aware of her body and it is such a gift.
She too wonders at times why God chose brain surgery for her.
Ultimately, we are forever grateful for this gift of modern day medicine. We seek Our Physician King Jesus first and foremost and then we obey whatever He calls us to.
I am a bit on the crunchy-granola side, I love natural medicines and holistic practices, but Papa doesn’t make us choose between one or the other.
He is in both. There are incredible men and women who dedicate their lives to the saving of lives. Their gentle touch, the very hands of Our Savior.
When my darling girl was almost two years old with the help of my community we raised enough money to purchase 10 shunts for ten babies living with hydrocephalus. At $100 each. A miracle of miracles could be offered to these precious babies living in Honduras who would otherwise die. God invites us into His story, and it becomes our own.
Trusting when we cannot see.
So how do we deal with disappointments?
Simply put.
- We pray.
- We give thanks.
- We trust.
- We sit in puddles of tears when life doesn’t go how we expected, and we allow The Lord to hold us close.
- Let The Lord minister to you through His Word. Because His Word reminds us so tenderly, “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
- We remember, He is for us, sister. He is not against us! He who did not spare His own Son will meet us in our despair and disappointments and if we let Him He will wash them away, bandage our broken hearts, and hold us close. I cannot promise that it will be easy, but I can promise He will meet us here.
- We ask those closest to us to pray with us. We understand that every single person encounters disappointments.
If you are praying and wondering who your people are, this is a post I believe will be helpful for you on this journey to community.
Dig deeper: Luke 1:45, Romans 8:28, Acts 11:5, Hebrews 13:5
Thank you so much for being here. I would love to hear from you. If this post has blessed you, would you please let me know in the comments? This helps google to share my blog with others who may need hope too!
Thankful for you, praying for you, trusting alongside you. Have a beautiful day.
One Comment