Devotional Song: Go to this link – If you’ve been here reading with me for any period, I know you’ve seen/heard this one here before. But … please take your time to see a video of a poignant truth in song, performed by Sara Groves, singing It’s Going To Be Alright, reminding Christians that it’s our faith which will bring us through the valley of the shadow of death into the reality of our relationship with Christ which brings us through all disappointments in life.
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Highlight Passage #1 - NLT: Proverbs 13: 12
12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.
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Highlight Passage #2 - NLT: Psalms 23 … You know it; but GO TO THIS LINK! …
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Reference Passage #1: Psalms 62: 5-6 … [NLT]
5 Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in Him. 6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken.
My Journal for Today: I got the title for my blog today from Os Hillman’s entry for his devotional this morning … “Disappointments.”
Ever had any disappointment? Of course we have! Yes, even the clown in today’s attached photo, who is made up to create joy, will encounter some downer days in his life, won’t he … (i.e., won’t we!). Maybe even you are that clown today, going through some “valley of the shadow of death” as we read in the 23rd Psalm. Disappointments can grab and hold our attitudes and then, if we let them, they can take us down into the sewers of life.
In today’s #1 highlight passage from Proverbs 13: 12, quoted above, we read a very real truth, … that we FEEL good when our own dreams are fulfilled; … BUT … we FEEL lousy (i.e., “heart sick”) when hope is deferred by disappointment. And there were some pretty strong dudes in the Bible who were derailed for a season of their life, even falling prey to situational depression, … OT men like Moses, Jonah, or Elijah;… or NT heroes like the Apostles Paul, Peter, or John. They all went through really low downers in their lives; but ultimately they were all uplifted by their relationship with their LORD.
ALL of these men were able to grab onto the truth of my first, and only, reference passage above from Psalm 62: 5-6, written by another of God’s men, David, … and a man who’d had his share of disappointments in life. But David was one who knew that the only real hope to be found in the midst of the downer times, was (and is) to rest in our relationship with God. And that, my friend, MUST BE our reality as we seek to pursue and hold on to the love of God as we face the downers of today or tomorrow.
So, I grasp on to these truths and hold – desperately – to them, dealing with the disappointments of life.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, I seek You as the only way to deal with my life. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online blog entitled Today God Is First [TGIF], authored by Os Hillman. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read Hillman’s TGIF blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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