Disappointment
written at Sunday, May 30, 2010
Disappointment comes all the time for me, grades, friends, situations, achievements. Would I say it's a natural thing? Definitely. Who wouldn't feel disappointed if things did't go according to their expectation? At times I'll feel messed up, exhausted and tired from all the anxiety associated with disappointment. I will be kidding myself and lying if I said I haven't been feeling any disappointment.
When you get back that grade on that piece of paper and you just get that growing urge inside of you to just tear it to shreds and throw it into the bin and just exclaim, "Why do I even bother." Or the times where you think you understood a situation, which leaves you opening your heart a little bit more to that other person, only to feel like a fool after. You then wrap yourself in your duvet before sleeping, with your fists clenched and in your longing for escape you pound the bed several times and pray, a prayer with such a tone, seeping with emotion and desperation. You ask the question, "Why?", "Why O Lord do I have to go through all of this?" You sleep, feeling defeated.
Then in the morning I stumbled across this verse. It's really amazing isn't it? The previous night you can be bouncing around, rolling around, jumping around feeling absolutely hopeless. But then you read a short passage from the Bible and suddenly, a wave of assurance comes, a breath of refreshment blows away the burdens of your heart. Suddenly, you are brought back into the presence of truth.
Romans 8:31-39
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is He that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: " For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The last part of this passage hit me, the author was surely convinced, convinced at what? Convinced that nothing that comes his way will be able to separate him from the love of God. I know that no matter how unreasonable, immature, unfair, ungrateful and sinful I am. I know that God still loves me, and He loves you very much too.
I want to know that His love prevails above all things. Is there anything else that I need?
Disappointment
written at Sunday, May 30, 2010
Disappointment comes all the time for me, grades, friends, situations, achievements. Would I say it's a natural thing? Definitely. Who wouldn't feel disappointed if things did't go according to their expectation? At times I'll feel messed up, exhausted and tired from all the anxiety associated with disappointment. I will be kidding myself and lying if I said I haven't been feeling any disappointment.
When you get back that grade on that piece of paper and you just get that growing urge inside of you to just tear it to shreds and throw it into the bin and just exclaim, "Why do I even bother." Or the times where you think you understood a situation, which leaves you opening your heart a little bit more to that other person, only to feel like a fool after. You then wrap yourself in your duvet before sleeping, with your fists clenched and in your longing for escape you pound the bed several times and pray, a prayer with such a tone, seeping with emotion and desperation. You ask the question, "Why?", "Why O Lord do I have to go through all of this?" You sleep, feeling defeated.
Then in the morning I stumbled across this verse. It's really amazing isn't it? The previous night you can be bouncing around, rolling around, jumping around feeling absolutely hopeless. But then you read a short passage from the Bible and suddenly, a wave of assurance comes, a breath of refreshment blows away the burdens of your heart. Suddenly, you are brought back into the presence of truth.
Romans 8:31-39
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is He that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: " For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The last part of this passage hit me, the author was surely convinced, convinced at what? Convinced that nothing that comes his way will be able to separate him from the love of God. I know that no matter how unreasonable, immature, unfair, ungrateful and sinful I am. I know that God still loves me, and He loves you very much too.
I want to know that His love prevails above all things. Is there anything else that I need?
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Knowing
What matters supremely, therefore, is not
in the last analysis, the fact that I know God,
but the larger fact which underlies it --
the fact that He knows me.
J. I. Packer
