Skip to main content

“Disappointment is the gap between what I expect and what I experience.”

A thought by Steven Furtick, (2014-02-11) from his book, Crash the Chatterbox: Hearing God's Voice Above All Others (Kindle Locations 2857-2858). The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

And we all have a bunch of those don’t we?  And there is real danger in there.

One of the phrases that I have quoted to the point I’m sure of annoyance to my family is the phrase, “too high expectations bring about frustration.”  And we all have experienced that haven’t we?

For some it is their mate, to others it could be their occupations, or maybe life itself.  But there is real danger in there.

Steven continues, “Disappointed expectations, when full-grown, give birth to chronic discouragement. If you allow this discouragement to run rampant in your life, you’ll lose your hope.”  Again this is the follow ground that the Enemy sows his lies. 

Now here is the key and I quote Steven, “Giving in to discouragement pacifies your disappointment— at first. Then you realize the pacifier is poisonous, because as believers, when we lower our expectation to the level of our experience, we factor God out of the equation. Instead of looking for His favor in every situation, we begin to anticipate the outcomes we dread. And since much of our experience is regulated by the level of our expectation, we begin to get what we were expecting. And we’re not surprised.”

That is not the life that God has for us.  Just take those disappointments, those expectations to Him.  Yes many of those disappointments come because of our choices without His guidance and then we blame Him but some just come because “His will is not done on earth as it is in Heaven.” 

I am so glad that He is not disappointed in us.  He loves us and has great expectations for us but He also looks at us with grace and understanding.  He is also waiting on us to come with those disappointments and expectations and ready to use them and many times fulfill them.  He is not done with us.  Let’s grow in our trust and dependence on Him.

So where are you disappointed?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

“There’s a big difference between building a castle and building a kingdom.”

A thought by Bob Goff from his book, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People ( p. 41). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)   Have you ever built a sand castle or maybe a Lego castle?   Have you? Bob says, “We actually build castles all the time, out of our jobs and our families and the things we’ve purchased. Sometimes we even make them out of each other. Some of these castles are impressive too. Lots of people come to admire what we’ve built over the course of our lives and tell us what great castles we have. But Jesus told His friends we weren’t supposed to spend our lives building castles. He said He wanted us to build a kingdom, and there’s a big difference between building a castle and building a kingdom.” Bob goes on, “You see, castles have moats to keep creepy people out, but kingdoms have bridges to let everyone in. Castles have dungeons for people who ha...

“When you understand that life is a test, you realize that nothing is insignificant in your life.”

A thought by Rick Warren, (2012-10-23) from his book, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (Purpose Driven Life, The) (p. 57). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. To realize that from God’s perspective life is a test goes a long way in determining how you handle your life.   It is important to see that in testing your character is both developed and revealed.   Rick goes on to say that “even the smallest incident has significance for your character development. Every day is an important day, and every second is a growth opportunity to deepen your character, to demonstrate love, or to depend on God.” So there is a God purpose behind each situation in your life.   Even the bad ones are there to strengthen you and develop you.   You see those bad situations are really good ones because they are there for your good. I start each day with a reminder that God is good.   Not every situation that is going to come in my day is good but because G...

“Sometimes we think we’re stuck simply because things are hard.”

A thought by Matt Perman, from his book, How to Get Unstuck (p. 52). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the That is a possible trap for many, isn’t it? Matt says, “But if you’re continuing to make progress and aren’t experiencing huge snags, you’re not stuck. Rather, you’re in a dip. “A dip is a temporary hard slog that you will get through if you keep pushing and don’t give up. And pushing through the hard slog is actually the fastest route to the destination. In these cases, you will be especially tempted to bail. Be discerning and able to identify that you’re in a legitimate dip and you’re not a failure.” Matt says another trap to be careful of, “Some people are stuck and don’t know it.” He goes on, “Everything can be going your way, going smoothly, and going quickly. Everything feels and seems wonderful. Yet... you are still headed toward a dead end, a form of getting stuck, if you are leaving God out of t...