Earned Disappointment

There are keys to walking in the blessings of our God - keys to allowing Him to bless us and allowing Him to fulfill the awesome promises He's made to us...

Our Lord honors His word every time and His word is powerful and full of life. It's full of opportunities to observe the mind, personality and wisdom of our God in a variety of situations. It gives us an opportunity to begin to learn about Him and His ways. It affords us an awesome chance to begin to know Him more intimately and to engage in a relationship with him. It gives us direction and wisdom in our daily lives and His guidance in moments of decision. But if we take anything out of the context in which it was given or short cut any of His direction or promises - we may find ourselves disappointed. If our efforts in relationship with Him and study of His word are hit and miss, we may become disillusioned ... because of our own failures. If we suffer a lack in our lives ... it might be because we've earned it.

No one of sound mind could argue against the virtues of our God's ways and wisdom. I'm more than confident that sound minds that know, not only can't, but won't even think to begin to argue against the fruitfulness of His teaching and character. We know how pleasant it is to live in peace, joy, honesty, righteousness and to walk in ways that are loving and just. Who could experience these things with a sound mind and right heart and ever honestly deny it? The greatest source of instruction in how to live successfully enjoying the fruit of these things and the blessings of our Lord ... is in the whole of His word.

I heard someone say something recently that resounded with my own thinking and confirmed something I feel strongly about. In my own words it's this: The Word of our Lord is not something we can take snippets from and come away with a full and fruitful understanding regarding how to live successfully in our God's presence. The Word of our God may have many chapters, and in our own way of describing it, many books. But from the beginning to the end it's one story - one book. You can't treat it casually - only performing hit and miss readings - and have a sound grasp of it. It's the most complete and comprehensive instruction manual for the singularly most critical thing we will do in all of our lives - respond to God.

There are some who struggle with disappointment in their walk with God and find themselves confused about why He wouldn't respond like He promised. They may find themselves wondering at some point "why don't I have this (whichever good thing the Word speaks of) in my life?" They may even find themselves wrestling with a question of our God's faithfulness when they've either asked for something or read God's promises in the Word and find themselves continuing to live without it. The individual reasons that may exist in any possible circumstance that could present itself could be many - His wisdom, understanding and knowledge of what's best for us so far exceed our own abilities. But in truth, the most likely answer could also be very simple: ... it could be that we failed to do our part.

The Bible contains many conditional promises and wisdom keys. Conditional promises are promises that will be fulfilled when a condition is met. These promises are offered with a commitment to fulfill them once we first meet an obligation required in order to receive the fruit of the promise offered. I think sometimes we may note the promise but forget to acknowledge the required condition that must be met in order to fulfill it (or we ignore it altogether). There are often prerequisites to the promises that He makes to us and wisdom to be followed. If we fail to fulfill what He requires from us in a conditional promise that would allow Him to fulfill the promise, who failed us? I would suggest that no one should ever answer that question with "God" because He's never ever failed to keep a promise that He's made. But on the other hand, many of us have failed to meet the condition(s) necessary to receive the fulfillment of them at one time or another. There are recurring words that appear in relation to many of God's promises with almost equal frequency. For example, you'll frequently see words similar to these: if my people will ..., then I will ... , you must..., a wise man ...Even the promise of our salvation is based upon a condition: we first have to believe.

The Word of our Lord requires more than a passing glance if we're sincere about receiving the abundance of life that our Lord offers us in it. To illustrate my point let's say that I do everything else right except this one thing because I didn't have the interest to study the word (by the way, I realize this issue is dealt with more generally in other areas of scripture. But here it's brought home quite plainly for us husbands): 1 Peter 4:7 "In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat her with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God's gift of new life. If you don't treat her as you should, your prayers will not be heard." We're to represent Christs heart and spirit to our wives. As husbands, if we're not observing this key then ... our phone line to heaven just went dead.

It would seem pretty reasonable to most that earthly fathers with good hearts would likely be pretty angry with a son-in-law that abuses daddy's precious little girl. So recognizing that we husbands are married to daughters of God, I can almost hear our Lord asking the obvious in a similar situation: "Do you really expect me to honor you, listen to you and bless you while you abuse my little girl?" (I'm sorry but in my mind as a dad with daughters, that's a big DUH! And before any ladies unfamiliar with this passage get too carried away, you might want to read the whole chapter - we're all on equal footing here.)

OK, so back to my point in this writing. Our omnipotent and awesome God has made the rules and requirements of fellowship with Him available to us. If we're not compliant with what our sovereign God has said, then we deserve to be disappointed - we've earned it. If we truly don't know how to be compliant, then it might be because we failed to go after the knowledge of what's required with a hunger to truly know, or we've been playing a hit and miss game with our God and His word. But from my own personal experience, let me say this: the rewards of fulfilling our end of the bargain - surrendering to Him completely, sincerely studying the word and seeking Him out in intimate relationship - satisfies the root cause of our search for everything that we would otherwise continue to seek to find in this life. He created us with a need, an emptiness, a void ... that only He can fill. He's told us how - it's there in the whole of His word. The choice to follow the wisdom of all of His direction is freely ours - But if we choose to not be sincere, intimate and diligent in our relationship with Him, then so is the disappointment - at that point ... we've earned it!