Disappointment is a curious emotion. We get sad; we get angry; we sometimes cry; we feel betrayed; we feel alone; we feel a loss. When the outcome of a situation is not what we hoped for and sometimes even leads to pain, difficulty and suffering, we experience the emotion of disappointment. Disappointment can easily become an excuse for sin, if we don't correctly understand God and His purposes.
As we long for something, pray for something, and reach for something that we think we need or want...we can easily forget that the outcome is not ultimately in our hands and a good outcome does not always look the way that we think it should look. Our good and sovereign God has made it clear to us that He alone controls the outcome of any and every situation, whether good or bad. Life and death; sickness and health; good times and bad; tranquility and disaster; they all come from His hand:
"'See now that I, even I, am he,and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal;and there is none that can deliver out of my hand."
Deuteronomy 32:39
And God revealed His sovereignty and supremacy to Moses in this way:
"The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD?"
Exodus 4:11
That great prophet, Isaiah heard the following words from the Lord:
"I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things."
Isaiah 45:7
So disappointment - though a natural, human response to difficutly, loss and less-than-ideal outcomes - often reflects our limited understanding of God's control over and involvement in all affairs.
But, as we behold God's glory in His sovereignty and supremacy over all things, we should never forget that He is good, perfectly good. God does not bring about death and disaster because He is like a mean kid on an anthill indiscriminately taking life and bringing suffering. No, God is good and everything about Him is good. And if we belong to Him; if we love Him; if we worship God and delight in Him; there is a promise we can rest our weary souls upon.
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."
Romans 8:28
What joy this should bring to the hearts of His saints. What blessed joy and assurance we can have in this promise. What looks like a terrible outcome to me is actually God working everything for my good - effectively making sure that whatever happens - it is for my good. Oh, what a Savior we have. Whatever situation we find ourselves in, it is for certain that it is for His glory and our good - IF we love Him.
The promise is only for those who love Him, so we must take a look at what love for God is. (I borrowed this from a sermon on Romans 8:28 by John Piper)
First, let's look at three negatives - three things that love for God are not:
1. Meeting God’s needs – it’s is not the things that we do for God, God has no needs.
2. Love for the gifts of God – salvation, justification, even Jesus’ death on a cross for our sins. We are to love HIM and not just what He DOES or has DONE for us!
3. The things that love prompt us to do – obedience is not love, obedience is a result of love.
Now let's look at the positive - what love for God is and how it is manifested:
Love for God resides in the affections – it is the hearts esteem of, delight in, desire for, joy in God and His character and who He is. Simply put, love for God is a feeling/emotion/affection/desire for God Himself in Jesus Christ!
If you love God; if He is your absolute treasure and your heart esteems Him above all other things; if your joy is rooted firmly in Him and Him alone; THEN, it means that God works all things for good for you.
If you don't love God; if He is not your absolute treasure and if you heart does not esteem Him above all other things; if your joy is not rooted firmly in Him alone; THEN, this promise is not for you.
Disappointment should bring the saints to their knees - thanking God, our sovereign God for His majesty in controlling every outcome and every situation, while savoring the truth that it is all for our good.
Disappointment should bring those who do not belong to the Lord to their knees - pleading with God for forgiveness for trying to rule the outcome of every situation and for mocking His glory, pleading with God for forgiveness for treasuring anything above His all-satisfying glory. Disappointment should send a shiver into the very soul of those at odds with God. Repent! Turn around and make Him your treasure. Turn around and worship Him!
Jesus died to purchase the promise of Romans 8:28 for us. Jesus paid the penalty of our treasuring and delighting in everything but God. Jesus died as a substitute for our collective mockery of His worth. If we turn to Jesus and look upon Him - we will gain the promise of Romans 8:28. If we fall to our knees and acknowledge His glory and His supremacy - all good things are ours.
"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
2 Corinthians 5:21
Oh, the promise. Oh, the joy. Oh, the satisfaction in knowing Jesus Christ and in gaining His righteousness and all the good God will give us through Him.
Disappointment has no hold on those who love God because all things are being worked for our good.
Blessed be the name of the Lord!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Can you fit Romans 9:2 into this?
Well, I assume what you are asking is how it is possible to be full of joy in disappointment when Paul is stating that he has “unceasing anguish” over the fact that his people, ethnic Israel are not part of the “promise?” You are wondering how Paul’s disappointment regarding his people fit into this “glorious joy in disappointment”. Am I right?
Please correct me if I am wrong on this and then I will respond :)
I figured I would answer anyway since I had time and because it's good practice in defining my theology. If this isn't the question you wanted an answer for let me know.
So the point of my post, based on the Scriptures I listed is simply that God is sovereign over all outcomes and that we can find solace and joy in 1) His glory shining forth in His sovereignty and 2) that coupled with the rest of the Bible we know that He is perfectly good. My purpose was to show God as sovereign and as good, as well as to remind us that as His people, everything works out for our good.
Now, in Romans 9:2 we see that Paul is clearly “disappointed”, though I wouldn’t use that term exactly – maybe heartbroken or sorrowful instead. He has pain over the fact that Israel (his kinsmen, not his brothers in spiritual Israel) are cut off from Christ. He is describing his utter grief over their perishing and the suffering that awaits them.
The question then becomes, how can he be sorrowful over God’s perfect outcome – an outcome which is for God’s glory and the good of His people.
I think that what answers this for us is God’s own pain and heartache over the lost. 1 Timothy 2:3-4 says that “This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” One could easily ask the question you asked about Paul in Romans 9:2 of God in this text. Is God lacking in sovereign joy because a “desire” of His is not realized? Is God devastated, throwing His hands up in heaven because all people are not saved? The answer is, of course, no! God causes all things to work according to His plan and foreknowledge.
“Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” Ezekiel 33:11
Again, we see that God does not delight in the destruction of people. God is not sadistic and does not get “pleasure” from damning people.
However, His glory is manifested in their death and damnation. Let me restate that, His glory is manifested in their death and damnation. If God’s end in everything He did was to display His glory and for His people to delight in that; gaining Him more glory, then we must assume that the death of the wicked does bring about the end for which God had planned. In fact, several Scriptures tell us that whatever God has planned comes about…nothing apart from His sovereign will (overarching will, that is) can ever happen and His glory in it will shine through as He intended it to do. Though, He takes no pleasure in it and is seemingly even heartbroken that He created us – His ultimate allegiance is to His glory and not to anything else. (In another discussion we can talk about His glory and our joy not being separate goals…that our joy is part of His glory and this is not some “selfish” or egotistical God who draws glory to Himself apart from any care for His creatures. But you have probably already heard that, I assume )
In the same way, I believe Paul, a godly man, is feeling sadness and pain that his kinsmen are perishing. He is heartbroken that they are not part of the body of Christ – reflecting the very feelings of God in Genesis, most of the books of the OT and into the NT. But, notice where Paul goes from 9:2. He heads straight for God’s sovereignty in the situation and rests his sadness on the God who in 8:28 made the glorious promise. He exposes God’s absolute supremacy over the entirety of the situation regarding salvation versus damnation. Paul masterfully shows us that God is ultimately in control and has already decided who belongs to Him.
So it is possible to be heartbroken, disappointed and sad without sinning. It is possible to be devastated in calamity without mocking God’s glory and worth. If Paul wasn’t in anguish over Israel’s perishing, I would argue that he would be in sin…as funny as that sounds My point is simply that we are to weep over the lost as Jesus does; we are to be heartbroken over those perishing as Jesus is…but it does not logically follow that this heartache should cloud our glorious joy in God and His glory. Job is a good example of what I would call “weeping worship.” We see in the book of Job that he grieves both in an outward, physical way by tearing his robe and shaving his head, as well as in an emotional way. It should be so! We are not to have glorious joy instead of grief when calamity hit us. We are not to say “well, I have God so there is no reason for me to be sad.” That’s perverted, really! We are to worship God IN grief and through tears. We are to find our joy in Him while weeping and grieving over the calamity or loss. That’s what makes Job’s worship of God so incredible. As Jesus wept when He saw that grief of Martha and Mary – so we are to weep over disaster, calamity and death. Glorious joy does not promise to remove sadness and grief – it only promises to get us through it.
Does my answer make sense?
Yes sir. ;)
Post a Comment