Disappointment part 5
When you're disappointed about something, that means you're letting what's going on around you affect what's going on inside you. And that's not ok. That's a bad idea. Because, as Peter found out when he was walking on water, what's usually going on around you is wind and waves. In this world you WILL have tribulation. Becuase that's the nature of the world. But I'm here to tell you, the fire in you is ALWAYS hotter than the fire you're in. What's inside trumps what's outside. If you let it. If, when you're going through things, you make sure things don't get into you. Psalm 23:4 talks about walking THROUGH the valley of the shadow of death. Not stopping there and making a home there. Not living there. But that's what we do, so often. We live in the past. Or we let our mistakes define us. Those disappointments that, chances are, we had no control over in the first place. But that we still blame ourselves for. Stop being so hard on yourself. Give yourself room to learn and grow. Room to live. Give yourself a break. God is not disappointed in you. Even when you mess up. He loves you without conditions. Because that's what love is. If its not unconditional, its not love. Love cannot be earned. Because love is a gift. It is freely given. And it must be received. That's where giving ourselves a break comes in. Because if you're disqualifying yourself from God's love--when He is NOT disqualifying you--then YOU are the thief that Jesus spoke of in John 10:10. Trying to enter the sheepfold in any other way but the Door. Robbing yourself of what you've already been given. Banging your head against the wall and finding only disappoinment... and a headache. So instead of doing all that... be still and know that HE is God. Know that God is love and He loves you. Know that making a mistake is not the end of the world. When you know that God will never stop loving you, no matter what, that's when you can start to love others... no matter what. When you stop seeing yourself as a disappointment, you can stop letting others disappoint you. You can be yourself. And you can let others be themselves. You can love people no matter how they react to your love. You can stop trying to decide if people "deserve" it. You're a person. You deserve it. You were created to be loved by God and to love others with that same love that you're loved with. Stop worrying about everything and anything else. Let go and let God. Lay aside the sin and the weight that so easily besets you. Stop making mountains out of molehills by expecting things to always go the way YOU think they should. Realize that just because something makes sense for you doesn't mean it makes sense for everybody else. People do not need to be your idea of what they should be. People need to be who they are. And when we expect anything other than that, we WILL get disappointed. And while we ought to not set expectations (so as to not get disappointed at all), when we inevitably do... we need to get over it. Rise above it. Don't let things wreck us. Its not as bad as it seems. Because when it seems dark... all you need to do is let your light shine. The light of the world. The light of love. The light that IS love. And when love is involved... disappointment isn't!