BIBLE
READING
Dealing
with Disappointments
Read John 18:19–40
In this text, Jesus has been arrested, questioned by Pilate,
and scourged. Peter has denied the Lord three times. If you were
there, wouldn’t you be tempted to think, "Certainly, this
isn’t the will of God!" Yes, it was. Because of the fall
of man, this tragedy had to occur.
There will be times that you will pray for things in a
certain way—a way that seems to fill the Biblical pattern to
the best of your knowledge, and in the end, it seems things work
out in tragedy. Do not give up praying or having faith! Begin to
pray that the Lord will be glorified through the disappointment.
Many times, I have heard of someone’s death turning one or
more unsaved persons to salvation. There are men who have lost
their jobs, only to find that God had another plan right around
the corner. High school graduates have been rejected from the
college of their dreams. Later, they see God using that
disappointment to get them to a college where He had a spouse or
other special design for them.
The more time we spend with God, the more we will understand
Him. But we will never know everything in His plan. The
wonderful thing is that we don’t need to! We can learn to
trust God to take care of us and all those we hold dear...in His
way and in His time as we pray.
"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements, and his
ways past finding out!" (Rom. 11:33).
