Dealing With Disappointment
Bible Readings
Take a few minutes to read the Bible verses listed and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you in how this verse applies to you this week.
1 From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus. God chose me to be an apostle, and he appointed me to preach the good news 2 that he promised long ago by what his prophets said in the holy Scriptures. 3 This good news is about his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ! As a human, he was from the family of David. But the Holy Spirit proved that Jesus is the powerful Son of God, because he was raised from death. 4 5 Jesus was kind to me and chose me to be an apostle, so that people of all nations would obey and have faith. 6 You are some of those people chosen by Jesus Christ. 7 This letter is to all of you in Rome. God loves you and has chosen you to be his very own people. I pray that God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you and will bless you with peace! 8 First, I thank God in the name of Jesus Christ for all of you. I do this because people everywhere in the world are talking about your faith. 9 God has seen how I never stop praying for you, while I serve him with all my heart and tell the good news about his Son. 10 In all my prayers, I ask God to make it possible for me to visit you. 11 I want to see you and share with you the same blessings that God's Spirit has given me. Then you will grow stronger in your faith. 12 What I am saying is that we can encourage each other by the faith that is ours. 13 My friends, I want you to know that I have often planned to come for a visit. But something has always kept me from doing it. I want to win followers to Christ in Rome, as I have done in many other places. 14 It doesn't matter if people are civilized and educated, or if they are uncivilized and uneducated. I must tell the good news to everyone. That's why I am eager to visit all of you in Rome. 15 16 I am proud of the good news! It is God's powerful way of saving all people who have faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. 17 The good news tells how God accepts everyone who has faith, but only those who have faith. It is just as the Scriptures say, “The people God accepts because of their faith will live.”
Romans 1:1-17
Memory Verse
Psalm 143:8
8 Each morning let me learn more about your love because I trust you. I come to you in prayer, asking for your guidance.
Have you ever been really looking forward to something, only to have it not happen? This may have happened to you a lot during the Covid-19 pandemic. So many events were canceled! So many plans changed! Sometimes the replacement things didn't seem as good.
In the beginning of the letter to the Romans, Paul is disappointed. He really wants to go visit the believers in Rome, but things keep popping up that keep him away. He has to write a letter instead. But even in his disappointment, Paul shows that he trusts God to keep working through him, even if it’s not in the way he hoped. Even writing the letter shows how God works because we are still learning from it thousands of years later. Nothing can stop God’s plans!
How do you deal with disappointment? Paul’s letter shows us that it’s okay to feel disappointed but that we need to keep trusting God. Like the Psalmist, Paul looks for “the way [he] should go” when things don’t go as planned. What opportunities have you seen in the disappointments during COVID-19?
Prayer
Dear Jesus, so many of my plans have changed lately. When I am disappointed, show me the way to go in my new situations. Help me to see other opportunities that you have for me to do your will. I trust you. Amen.Related Resources
Heather Altena
Heather Altena grew up in West Michigan, moved to the West Coast, and now lives just two blocks west of Chicago. She attends Pullman Christian Reformed Church and works various teaching-, literary-, writing-, theater-, and computer-related related jobs for the Southwest Chicago Christian School Association. She and her husband, Christian, have four children in their teens and twenties and are learning the truth of the magnet on their fridge: "The first 40 years of parenting are the hardest."