Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:5

Last time we looked at the later life of John the Prophet. In Matthew 11:2-6, John is arrested and thrown in prison, which seems really strange to those who believe the successful Christian life is all mountaintop vistas with sugar-gum trees. I mean, here’s John, the one who correctly understands himself to be the frontrunner of Jesus the Messiah. He has been faithful. In fact, even Jesus would say that there is not a greater man born than John…Then he’s thrown in prison…Then he’s executed.

One of the take-aways from the history of the Israelites is that the relationship between Hope and Disappointment. Same in the New Testament and church history: If we don’t want to be disappointed, forget about hope. Disappointment is always rooted in hope deferred or crushed. (Prov 13:12). We can’t be disappointed if we didn’t first hope that something in the first place. And none of us are exempt. Every one of us has had a plan, a dream, a vision of what we want to happen in our lives that doesn’t work out the way we had hoped at some level.

When that happens, disappointment is natural, certainly not sinful. But disappointment can be the tip of a mean-spirited iceberg if we let it. When our shattered dreams and plans erode our confidence… Our confidence in ourselves, our confidence in our ability to hear God correctly, and even in our God, Himself.

“So do not throw away your confidence, for you are destined for a great reward! You need to reveal God’s will and then you receive the promise in full (Heb 10:36,37) God is working a plan in each of our lives, and that plan is a good plan, but it will almost always play out differently than we think it will…maybe differently than we think it should.

So, here are some things we need to do if we were going to thrive (or at least survive) in the sometimes slower-than-we’d-like revelation God’s good, right plan playing out…even in ways that are also sometimes confusing and don’t seem to make sense [and, at times, if we’re really honest, disappoint us].

1) We’re going to have to come to grips with the fact that He is God and we are not. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Is 55:9). Our humanity limits us. (Our schedule isn’t God’s. We only see in part (1Cor 13:12).)

We need to acknowledge that we’re not all knowing and that God is. Being small and in the hands of an infinite God is so much better than being big and strong and thinking we have things under control. Just embrace the fact that we can’t, and He can, so we should probably let Him. It’s just a better way to do life.

2) We need to read the Bible truthfully. In a religious culture where people take Bible-snippets and create cute memes and stick it on Facebook… You and I have both seen it… we need to know what the Bible really says… all of it. It’s not an accident that nearly everyone that the Bible talks about in any detail faced real problems. God promised he would be with us in our problems and deliver us, but not that we wouldn’t have problems (Is 43:2; 41:10). Just the opposite, Jesus promised that in this world we would have trouble (but don’t be disappointed. He has overcome the world—Jn 16:33).

3) If we’re going to deal with disappointing circumstance victoriously, we must continually look at Jesus as the objective evidence that God is for us and not against us; that “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom 8:32). All good things. All things that He knows are good. He doesn’t gives us stones when we ask for a fish, no matter how certain we are that a fish is best for us (Matt 7:9).

Finally, “Load all your worries and stress upon (Jesus) and leave them there, for he always tenderly cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7).