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

Level burnout!

You might reach a point where you just feel drained and empty. You just feel as if all you are doing is giving, loving and serving, but you get nothing in return. You start feeling irritable and a little resentful towards other people and you might even think that no one really cares about you, but you just have to care for everyone. I will call it the “burnt-out” level. I think this happens to everyone once in a while and we need to learn how to handle it and take preventative action against it.

When we start our relationship with Jesus He expands our hearts. He gives us the ability to have and receive more love, so that we can give more love, it’s pretty simple. The problem is this, we get used to His overflow of love and we start giving more and more love and the people around us get used to taking more love (because we give more). Then suddenly we get busy, we neglect spending time with Jesus, but we still give, give, give, because we are so used to it and it is now part of our nature to give and love. What we do not realise is that we can only give what we have received and if we don’t spend time with Jesus and get refreshed in Him, we will end up with low levels of love and then resentment and irritation sets in and then suddenly everyone becomes too demanding and everything becomes too much for us to handle.

Don’t get me wrong, we have God is us, so we have all the love that we need in us, but spending time in God’s presence activates our love, it reminds us of who God is and how amazingly gracious and lovable He is and then instantly we just feel fabulous again. We feel as if we just want to burst at the seams with love. We realise that we don’t need to be satisfied by the people around us, but that He can satisfy our every need. He makes us feel worthy, appreciated and most of all incredibly loved. This then catapults us into the world to once again give, love and serve with a genuine smile.

It does not mean that we don’t appreciate or need the love and affection of the people around us, it just means that we don’t have to connect our sense of worth to the amount of love and affection that we receive from the world. God will always make us see how much we are worth and how precious we are and this is where our confidence comes from. God’s words to us are life and as children of God our spirits crave His words every day.

“But He answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”” Matt 4:4

Remember to replenish the “love battery” as my friend described it today. Let us ensure that we spend enough time in God’s presence to prevent “level burnout” and this will enable us to constantly be a joy to everyone around us without feeling irritable or empty. You are SO incredibly loved, believe it!

“We love because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

“This is real love--not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” 1 John 4:10

“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” Romans 5:1-5