God truly does work in mysterious ways, doesn’t he? His ways are so mysterious, that they can appear disappointing in our human perspective. The question is, in your disappointment, have you given up and dismissed yourself from seeing the fullness of what God was doing?
Many years ago, my husband and I gave up a very successful business we had built in Dallas to follow the prompting of God to go to El Paso, Texas to help build a church. Once there, we struggled to pay rent, struggled to keep the repo man from taking our truck, struggled to buy groceries. Life became one big struggle.
Our little boy was in kindergarten and he was required to wear a uniform. We could only afford to buy 2 uniform shirts, so when 1 of those shirts got ruined, I was washing that lone little white shirt by hand every single night. Struggling.
My sister, if you’re in a season of struggle, please know I understand. I’ve been in the struggle.
But we were there out of obedience. I thought surely obedience would be handsomely rewarded. Then the church fell apart and closed, the family we moved there to help left, and there we were left with absolutely nothing but a mess to clean up. Why in the world did God bring us there to fail? I’ve never been more disappointed in my life.
Y’all it’s one thing to struggle when you still have hope. It’s a completely different thing to struggle when you’re sorely disappointed. But what if this disappointment is part of God’s mysterious way? It is for a purpose and your faith is being called to action here.
2 Kings chapter 5 tells of a successful man in a struggle. This man was Naaman. He was a commander of the Syrian army and had nothing but great victories. He was a loved, mighty warrior. But as successful as Naaman was, he had an incurable disease that would slowly kill him. He had leprosy. Leprosy was a problem he couldn’t fix.
Through a series of connections, Naaman ends up going to see the prophet Elisha for healing. And there, he is disappointed.
2 Kings 5: 9-12: Naaman went with his horses and chariots and waited at the door of Elisha’s house. But Elisha sent a messenger out to him with this message: “Go wash yourself seven times in the Jordan River. Then your skin will be restored, and you will be healed of your leprosy.”
But Naaman became angry and stalked away. “I thought he would certainly come out to meet me!” he said. “I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call on the name of the Lord his God and heal me! Aren’t the rivers of Damascus better than any of the rivers of Israel? Why shouldn’t I wash in them and be healed?” So Naaman turned and went away in a rage.
The key word here is EXPECTED. Naaman expected the man of God to work in one way, but he experienced something radically disappointing instead.
You may be disappointed in God right now, and that’s okay. He knows your human mind cannot conceive the fullness of his divine ways. He knows your sight is limited. He knows his ways are so much higher than your ways and he never expected you to understand him. However, he does call you to trust him in faith.
Faith can look at a disappointing reality, deal with the real emotions of it, and still take the next step. Faith can lean in instead of tapping out. Faith can be disappointed without dismissing the appointment.
My sister, you can still show up disappointed.
I was so disappointed in God’s provision when we stepped out in faith. I was so discouraged by the utter failure of hard steps taken in obedience. I wanted nothing more than to pack my bags and go back home … the problem was, there was no home to go back to. There was no money to go anywhere. We were stuck. Stuck in a place we didn’t want to be. But what we didn’t realize then is we were stuck there for a purp...