E.22 — 3 Ways Disappointment Can Fill Us With Hope
Season 3: Episode 1
3 Ways Disappointment Can Fill Us With Hope
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In this episode you will learn:
How to Hope in God While Disappointed
The trading floors of heaven
How disappointment leads you to fulfilled hope
Episode length: 11:17
Transcript
It is true that God's trading floors in heaven does quite a bit of exchange from disappointment to hope.
Finding the Hope
Hello, everyone and welcome back to our third season of God-Sized Dreams in Bite-Sized Chunks. This podcast is dedicated to those of you who are going after your God-sized dreams but sometimes need a little push that helps you stay on track. In this episode, I want to explore disappointment and how disappointment is actually God's way of reaching and teaching us about hope. So let's jump in.
Welcome to God's strategy room.
Disappointment is one of those things that can drag around with us unnoticed for weeks or even months, it will appear like a lump in your chest dread feelings, or even just a lethargy in going after the things that you feel God is calling you to do. In today's episode, I'm hoping you will come away with ways to combat disappointment and to actually find yourself and wave after wave of God's hope. It is true that God's trading floors in heaven does quite a bit of exchange from disappointment to hope. So let's look at three ways disappointment can fill you with hope.
Number 1 - Looking Inside for Change
Number one, Psalms 42. Psalms 42 is a pretty famous psalm, and I'm sure you've heard of it or read it. In verse three, it starts out like this. “My tears have been my food day and nights. While they say to me all day long, where's your God? These things I remember, as I pour out my soul, how would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God? With glad shouts in songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival? Why are you cast down on my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him my salvation. And my God.”
You know, in this verse, what David is speaking of is he speaking of the same kind of disappointment, that often rattles us and keeps us from being able to go down the roads that God's wanting us to go down. But I'm often finding myself in these places of disappointment is actually being recharged in hope. See, when the enemy sends us disappointment, it's God's way of saying child, I want to give you something very different. And oftentimes, when I find myself in disappointment, I find myself just like David saying to my soul, hope in God for I shall again praise Him, who is my salvation. You see, oftentimes, when we are in this place, where disappointment is keeping us down, God is asking us to begin to look inside and recognize all of the ways that hope is wanting to spring force. .
The Flower Theory
I was driving to the office today. And I saw these beautiful flowers that look like cups. Man, I wish I knew botany better. But I don't know what type of flowers they were. But they look like cups that you could fill up with your favorite kind of beverage and just drink. They were these beautiful flowers. And they're just growing on the side of the road. And I just took a moment in the midst of my disappointment. And I said, Lord, thank you so much, that I can have a moment like this, and say thank you for all the things that you've created for all the things that are going on in my life, for the things that aren't disappointing in my life. For the things that you're doing in my family, the things you're doing in my friends, oftentimes with disappointment is is is looking at things on the outside instead of looking at things on the inside.
And so what hope does is it says, Look at what's going on inside of you! What is the thing that God's wanting to challenge you in so that your disappointment begins to fade away? It's really sometimes one of those things where if we look at it, and we say, Jesus, I really need help. I really need help to take my disappointment and turn it into hope that he's more than willing to do so. And I find that if I find disappointment in myself, that oftentimes going back to thankfulness and looking around at the things that he's doing, and not at the things that he's not doing is my key for getting out of it. So just like David, I say to myself, Soul hope in God for I shall again, praise him my salvation, and my God. I also find that God is looking to fill us with hope on the trading floors of heaven. Did you know that God had trading floors like Wall Street? Well, he does. And our number two reason disappointment may be pointing you to hope will be after this short ad.
Number 2 - God’s Trading Floors
Let's get back to God's trading floors and the reason why disappointment can actually fill us with hope. Let's read out of Isaiah 61 verses one through three. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to come for all who mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress, instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified.”
You see, the trading floors of Heaven is where the Lord trades out our disappointment for the things he really wants to give us. Going to the trading floors of heaven just looks like a prayer. It looks like Lord, I'm praying in Isaiah 61. Over my life today, I'm praying Father God, that you will give me the oil of gladness, instead of mourning, you will give me a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, and the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit. You see it is by learning how to exchange disappointment for hope that the Lord can say of us that we're oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, and that He may be glorified in our life. It's not the God's looking for inauthentic posturing, he's not looking for us to be kind of this pet Pharisee, a cool religious icon for others. It's actually that he's actually really wanting to exchange these things. He's wanting to actually give us the feelings. And the end, the emotional gladness that he's wanting to give us. gladness is an emotion. The garment of praise comes out of our feelings. And so oftentimes, because we're in a place of faint spirits, where we're often in, or maybe we've got ashes in our life, we're looking at things and we're saying, Boy, this just did not turn out the way I wanted. And it's disappointing. The Lord is saying, Look, I will trade this out for you, because I will be glorified in your life. And that's just as simple as going in prayer to the Lord and saying, This is what you say, in your scripture, Lord, will you please exchange these things out in my life, and pray to Him and trust that he's going to hear you.
You see, the trading floors of Heaven is where the Lord trades out our disappointment for the things he really wants to give us.
Number 3 - Disappointment Leads to Hope
The third and final reason, disappointment can fill you with hope is this. In John 20, we get the story of the day of Jesus's resurrection. Mary had been a faithful follower of Jesus in his time on Earth, and she, as you can imagine, was filled with disappointment at his death. Perhaps this is the most bitter disappointment that one could go through. But let's read her story in John 20, verse 11. “But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. And as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. And they said to her Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? supposing him to be the gardener? She said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary, she turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rab oni,” which means teacher.
This is this beautiful moment where Mary's disappointment turns to hope. And there's some key words that happen in this passage that I really want us to look at. Primarily, it's the multitude of times that Mary is encountering the supernatural, and she doesn't even know it. The first thing happens as she goes, and she sees the stone is rolled away from the tomb, and she looks in there. And there are two angels sitting exactly where Jesus was. But she doesn't see angels because we don't see anything in this passage that makes her makes us feel like she feels like anything, but the natural is happening. And then she turns again, and there's a man whom she thinks is a gardener, but is actually Jesus standing outside the tomb. And when he says her name, she finally the veil is lifted off of her eyes, and she realizes that she's been surrounded by the supernatural through the whole event.
Sometimes you guys, we need our eyes to be opened to what God's doing in the supernatural. Sometimes it takes disappointment for us to say to Jesus, Lord, will you open my eyes to what you are doing? And will you fill me with hope so that I may see in the spirit realm what you were doing? We may not see the angels and we may not see Jesus as a gardener, but the Lord will begin to fill our spirit with understanding about what he's doing in this moment of discipline. And then that supernatural place will begin to feel filled up with hope that he is going to answer us that he is going to come through for us and that He will be faithful to us, even though we feel like their ashes all around us. I want to pray with you today. Because as we are listening together as as I'm talking as you're listening, I feel like Holy Spirit is saying to me to pray over you about disappointment.
This is the beautiful moment where Mary's disappointment turns to hope.
Prayer
So Father, God, I just want to ask right now that your love would fill those who are listening right now that Father God that you would actually go through the airwaves and begin to touch those who are listening, and fill them with your love fills in with your hope. And Father God, I pray, Lord Jesus, that any place where disappointment has covered up the supernatural work that you're doing, Father God, I pray that their eyes would be open today to see all of the things that you're doing behind the scenes, to make them filled with hope. Father got to show them the trading floors of heaven, where you're wanting to trade out their disappointment for hope. And Father God, the places in their life, where they're saying, I want to learn how to be grateful again, Father, God, speak to them, Lord Jesus and help them to go back into a place of gratefulness to displace all of that disappointment. Lord, I just pray for the listeners today, that hope would be their rear guard, that the hope would be in front of them, that they find hope on each side of them, Father, God, that hope being the thing that remains out of 31st Corinthians 1313 Hope is one of the things that remains. Father God, I pray the hope would be around them all day long throughout the week, Father God and they'd find themselves moving out of a place of disappointment into your great hope. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
Thank you so much for listening and God bless you