The Lord never breaks His promises; he often breaks us – only to build us up through His promises!
The Word of God is flooded with hundreds of promises and it’s hard to flip a page without touching one. The human race, with history being its witness, saw hundreds of these promises fulfilled, tons of times. That alone, displays both the loving nature of God and His Unfailing faithfulness. However, the wisdom of the Lord is too lofty for a man to be able to predict His, save through divine revelation.
Of all the divine methods the Lord uses, the disappointments He takes us through, startle the soul yet stabilize the spirit. His WISDOM, as uncanny as it may look to the world, is sweet to the believer. The good Lord, on our journey to eternity, leads us through a handful of divine disappointments to help us reach our divine destiny. Unanswered prayer, the unconquered promised-land and many more under-construction projects, alarm us all about the promises of God, if not about God Himself. But the Lord is so amazing in His wisdom, that even when He allows us to go through a lot of seemingly foolish events, is still able to fork us out of our misinterpretations and help us make sense out of it. Let us scan the Scripture, to find the divine rationale behind these disappointments.
Divine Purposes:
The Lord is a Promise-making God, this is good to know! Nevertheless, the trouble begins when we don’t understand why the Lord took 40 years to fulfill a promise to the desert nomads, while he instantly fulfilled his promise towards..., hmmm…well, wait a minute, think about it. Really – was anyone in the Bible promised something that was fulfilled immediately? Seriously? SELDOM! I can hear you whisper – a lot of people were healed immediately, a lot of wars were won immediately, a lot of breakthroughs too happened immediately. However, a careful study of the Bible reveals that most of the times, the Lord doesn’t fulfill His PROMISES immediately. He promises because he is an All- Loving God, he keeps His Promises because He is an All – Powerful God. And he sometimes delays because He is an ALL – WISE GOD! Here’s the clincher – His purpose, for all His promises, is just one thing – that we become like Him, see Romans 8:29 – “Conformed to the likeness of His Son”. This is God’s divine purpose for our lives, that He might be glorified in us. But, the problem comes, when the promises of God are taken out of the purposes of God, we miss the plan of God. The Lord marvelously takes us through a some surprising disappointments, simply to fulfill his purposes for us. More can be said about this, but meditation on Romans 8:28- 32 will be a blessing.
Divine Pattern:
Unfinished projects, unfulfilled promises, unanswered prayers – sounds familiar? Yes, that’s the Lords way. A heart that is hurt by an unfulfilled promise, from the only promise keeping God, understands it better. God’s pattern of work is as mysterious as the development of a baby’s bones in the womb of its mother (paraphrased Eccl 11:5). Therefore when the promises of the Lord are not fulfilled, we are forced to ask a few hard questions like – Why is this happening? What did I do to deserve this? Did I hear the Lord wrong? Should I’ve asked the Lord about His promise twice? Was it the Lord or my own inner voice? Was I manipulated? What does the Lord get in delaying this thing in my life? We ask and only ask to no avail, until we understand that the Lords purposes can only be fulfilled in His pattern and not ours. Our patterns are self-centered as our desires are; while He is working on something grander and greater.. Mull over this – Galatians 5:22. NO BLEEDING – NO BLESSING!
Divine Pleasure:
Misunderstanding God is the worst deception a believer can experience and is the enemy’s best weapon! In fact the enemy’s only agenda is to present God as the enemy while presenting himself as God. Yet, God, the source of all wisdom orchestrates life to fulfill grand things that reveal His Glory. When disappointments in life are viewed as God ordained patterns to fulfill God honoring purposes, no demon in hell can make us forfeit, God glorifying pleasures. God’s greatest gift to the dying, disappointed soul is not “Today you will be in paradise”, but “Today YOU will be WITH ME in paradise” – Luke 23:43. That’s why David could say – “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you” (Psalms 63:3)
Dear co-disappointee, get on your knees and thank Him for all your disappointments. Because in these disappointments are set His grand appointments.