Dealing with disappointment

We all experience disappointment some time or another. Maybe you are having a worse day than anticipated, maybe someone didn't meet your expectations, maybe a friend let you down or a promise was broken, it might be a huge disappointment or a small disappointment, but it still tries to steal our joy and cramp our style. Your heart feels like it's bleeding and you don't understand why people are so thoughtless, careless or selfish. You feel bad, because you are not sure if you are just overreacting or if it really is something that needs to be addressed. Point is, you just feel hurt and discouraged.

When we live in the Spirit, we can always be in a place of peace and joy. Once in my disappointment God gave me the following picture: my heart is made of clay and as disappointment comes it leaves imprints like footprints on my heart. Holes where it has trampled. At that moment we have a choice, we can allow the holes to harden and dry by harbouring the disappointment or we can choose to let the Spirit work through us, give it to Him and let the disappointment go before it even leaves an imprint on our day. God fills and moulds our hearts until there is no trace of disappointment left.

It's a fight, but it's a choice. We choose what gets us down and what drains us. We have the Spirit in us and if we choose to submit every situation to Him, He will restore our hearts. If we seek revenge, complain, scold or attack the other party, we only react on the impulses of the flesh and that can never bring healing to our hearts or give us the ability to forgive. I'm not saying that it's easy, it takes practice, but choosing to submit the situation to God and allow the Spirit to work through us, will always lead us into a place of peace and joy and enable us to respond in love.

God can never disappoint us. He is with us every moment and He catches us every time that we slip or fall. Choose Him and call on Him in every situation and do not allow the imprint to leave a mark on your heart. Allow your heart act like a sponge, every time when life squeezes the water out of you, allow the Spirit to immediately replenish you.

May our days never look the same again. May we live with open hearts, undisturbed by the challenges in our daily lives, untouched by the darts of the enemy. May we be fountains of peace, love and joy! 

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33 ESV)

Picture credit: weheartit