O my soul,
What happened yesterday?
Were you hoping for great things? Were you expecting great things? And are you tempted to say, “nothing”? That nothing happened? (You would be so very wrong about that, by the way.)
And if you think that nothing happened yesterday, now what? What will you do now? Where is hope? How can hope survive the passing of yet another day, the unrelenting accumulation of which become inexorable years? How can faith survive this, O my soul? How will this rollercoaster of expectation and disappointment not simply grind you down into the dust?
How indeed?
Here’s how. There are three reasons. The first reason is to understand that disappointment is a lie.
Disappointment is a lie because it presupposes failure. But what failure would that be, exactly?
Listen to Joshua, now old and well advanced in years, passing on some wisdom at the end of his own life to those who would come after him.
And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.
― Joshua 23:14
Not one of the Lord’s promises had failed, nor has failed, nor will fail. Know that he is faithful and true, O my soul, to all that he has said, and to all that he is!
And if you think that what you were hoping for yesterday didn’t happen, what you were expecting, what you were so committed in faith to receiving, then listen to the Lord himself, speaking through Isaiah.
“I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.”
― Isaiah 46:9-11
For sure, there are things not yet done, but there is none like God, declaring the end from the beginning, from ancient times. O my soul, he will do it! He will accomplish all he has purposed! Know that nothing has failed. Trust him still and praise him!
The second reason is because God’s love has been poured into our hearts. Poured out for you, O my soul.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
― Romans 5:1-5
I will have to return another time to rejoicing in our sufferings but for now consider just that final verse, for which the Berean Standard Bible rendition is particularly helpful.
And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.
― Romans 5:5 BSB
Hope does not disappoint. God himself is both the giver and the one who pours. It is his own great love. He poured out that same love at Calvary, O my soul. Rejoice in hope of the glory of God!
The third and final reason is to understand at least something of what did actually happen yesterday.
What was I hoping for? Isaiah knows.
Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.
― Isaiah 64:1
I was hoping that the Creator God of the Universe, awesome in power and terrifying in purity but also so very good and kind, would break into this impossible situation, breathing out grace and truth and power into my own life and those around me.
So did he?
From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.
― Isaiah 64:4
Isaiah tells us that the Lord acts. Not that he will act, or even that he did act, but that he acts, in the present tense. He is working right now with great power for those who wait for him. Will you be that, O my soul? Will you continue to be that?
And what is it that he is doing?
Habbakuk knows and it cannot be told. The Lord himself declares it.
“Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.”
― Habakkuk 1:5
Wonder and be astounded, O my soul, at what the Lord is already doing in your life, and renounce disappointment! 🙏