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.
Memory Verse
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life. (NIV)
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."