Originally Posted 04-12-2011. Reposted 11-18-2013.
——————————————————-
Unrelenting disappointment leaves you heartsick, but a sudden good break can turn life around.
~Proverbs 13:12 (The Message)
Have you ever felt like the first half of this verse describes your life? Have you ever felt like your heart just won’t be able to take one more blow? Have you ever felt truly, utterly heartsick? You’re not alone. Unrelenting disappointment is crushing. Unrelenting disappointment is depressing. But unrelenting disappointment is also normal…for God’s people at least.
God uses pain and disappointment in our lives to shape us. We see this pattern lived out all through Scripture, throughout church history, and all over Christendom today. Joseph was a slave and a prisoner. The Israelites were slaves and wanderers. David was harassed and hunted. The apostles were tortured and martyred. Church fathers were excommunicated, imprisoned, scorned, and killed. Even today, Christians suffer around the world.
God allows those He loves to experience unrelenting disappointment because it makes us depend on Him. He allows it also, because it makes us hope in Him as well. We continually hope for Him to provide the “sudden good break” mentioned in Proverbs 13:12.
I wish I could promise that your unrelenting disappointment will stop soon, but I can’t. What I can promise is this: our God is the God of the “sudden good break.” No, I’m not saying that the things you wish for will come true. I’m saying that God will relieve your pain someday. Perhaps your pain will end like Joseph’s or David’s; you’ll get an amazing promotion. Maybe it will end like the wandering Israelite’s pain ended; you’ll move into the promised land. Perhaps, though, your break will come like that of the apostles’; you’ll suffer until this life is over and you’ll be immediately transported through the portal of death, from pain to glory.
Scripture never promises that “unrelenting disappointment” will end on this side of eternity. It does promise, though, that Christ’s followers will one day be in his presence and that the temporary suffering of earth will seem like nothing compared to the wonder of Heaven. Yes indeed, God is the God of the “sudden good break”.
I hope your good break comes on this side of eternity. I hope you don’t have to suffer on earth more than you already are. But I hope more for God’s will and His plan. Whatever you’re going through now, remember that it’s temporary. God will deliver you one day…maybe today…maybe 70 years from today, but deliverance is coming.
Thank you God, for sudden good breaks!!
Unrelenting disappointment often leads to a loss of hope. Thereafter, suicide because death seems preferrably to this wretched existence. I cannot understand this need for us to suffer, yes I knowof the bigger picture but irrespective pain hurts, especially when it is unrelenting and often unjust. Yeah, we are all sinners, some more than others. How does a everyday Christian hold onto hope. I cry to God and all I feel is my living pain and …..
Hi Karina, Thanks for your honest note. I’m truly sorry that you’re in pain.
The “sudden good break” that Scripture mentions (and I wrote about above) never comes as a result of sin. Suicide is a sinful, human solution. It is a destructive shortcut.
I’m not going to insult you by quoting a bunch of warm and fuzzy platitudes. Rather, I want you to know that I’m praying for you right now and I’m asking you to get help.
Here is an organization in the UK that will help you. Please call them straight away! The Samaritans (UK), sympathetic helpline. Tel. – 0845 790 9090. http://www.samaritans.org.uk
Last night I spent hours writing a message for my church about hope. Here are some of the verses of Scripture that spoke to me. I hope they encourage you right now and give you the courage to contact “The Samaritans.”
My days are over. My hopes have disappeared. My heart’s desires are broken.
~Job 17:11 (NLT)
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life
~Prov 13:12 (NIV)
By helping each other with your troubles, you truly obey the law of Christ.
~Gal 6:2 (NCV)
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.
~John 16:33 (NIV)
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
~Heb 11:1 (NIV)
In the same way, wisdom is sweet to your soul. If you find it, you will have a bright future, and your hopes will not be cut short.
~Prov 24:14 (NLT)
It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
~Eph 1:11 (MSG)