Defeating Disappointments

One of the most important keys to living your best life now, as well as moving forward into the great future God has for you, is learning how to overcome the disappointments in life. It is vital that you recognize in advance that disappointments will come, and that you learn how to stay on track and deal with them when they do.

Often, defeating disappointments and letting go of the past are the flip sides of the same coin, especially when you are disappointed in yourself. When you do something wrong, don't hold on to it and beat yourself up about it. Admit it, seek forgiveness, and move on. Be quick to let go of your mistakes and failures, hurts, pains, and sins.

Disappointments almost always accompany setbacks. When you suffer loss, of course you will feel strong emotions. Not even God expects you to be so tough that you simply ignore the disappointments in life. No, when we experience failure or loss, it's natural to feel remorse or sorrow. That's the way God made us. If you go through a broken relationship, that's going to hurt. If you've ever lost a loved one, there's a time of grieving, a time of sorrow. That is normal and to be expected.

God knows we're going to make mistakes. God knows we are not perfect, so He provides fresh, new mercy and grace every day. God doesn't condone our sins; He doesn't wink at our wrongdoing. But God doesn't automatically condemn us either.

If you're going to avoid getting trapped in your past, you must learn to forgive yourself. You must be willing to accept God's mercy. You can't be so critical of yourself that you won't receive what God has to offer.

Maybe you made some bad choices, and now you are trying to correct the things you've done wrong. That's noble, and to the extent that you can make restitution for any hurt you have inflicted on others, you should attempt to do so. But you must understand, you can't always repair every broken piece of your life or somebody else's life; you can't fix every mistake or clean up every mess that you have made. You may be trying to pay a debt that you cannot possibly pay. Perhaps it is time that you simply receive God's mercy and forgiveness so you can move on with your life.

Let go of your past disappointments, failures, and sins. God want to do a new thing. He wants to restore to you in abundance everything the enemy has stolen from you. Quit dwelling on those disappointments, mourning over something you've lost, and start believing God for a fantastic future!

I encourage people to persever, to continue praying, and believing for good things to happen. But we must also understand that God will not change another person's will. He has given every human being free will to choose which way he or she will go, whether to do right or wrong. Sometimes, no matter how hard we pray or how long we stand in faith, things don't turn out as we hope.

You may be heartbroken over a failed relationship or a bankrupt business, but I challenge you to not stay heartbroken. Don't carry around all that hurt and pain year after year. Don't let rejection fester inside you, poisoning your future. Let it go. God has something new in store for you.

When God allows one door to close, He will open another door for you, revealing something bigger and better. God wants to take your scars and turn them into stars. He wants to take those disappointments and turn them into reappointments. But understand, whether you will experience all those good things in your future depends to a large extent on your willingness to let go of the past.

You can't put a question mark where God has put a period. Avoid the tendency to dwell on what you could have done. Quit living in a negative frame of mind, stewing about something that is over and done. Focus on what you can change, rather than what you cannot. Shake yourself out of that "should have, could have, would have" mentality and move on. Don't let the regrets of yesterday destroy the hopes and dreams of tomorrow.

Surely, we all can look back and see things in our lives that we wish we would have done differently. Yesterday is gone; tomorrow may not come. You must live for today. Start right where you are. You can't do anything about what's gone, but you can do a great deal about what remains.

You may have made some poor choices that have caused you awful heartache and pain. Perhaps you feel that you have blown it, that your life is in shambles and beyond repair. You may feel disqualified from God's best, convinced that you must settle for second best the rest of your life because of the poor decisions you made. But friend, God desires your restoration even more than you do! If you'll let go of the past and start living each day with faith and expectancy, God will restore everything that the enemy has stolen from you.

Worse yet, maybe you weren't the person who made the bad choices, but somebody else's foolish decisions caused you to experience wrenching heartache and pain. Regardless, you must stop dwelling on it. Let the past be the past. Forgive the person who caused you the trouble and start afresh right where you are today. If you continue to dwell on those past disappointments, you will block God's blessings in your life today. It's simply not worth it.

How long are you going to mourn over that failed relationship? How long are you going to mourn over your broken dreams? That's the problem with excessive mourning. When we focus on our disappointments, we stop God from bringing fresh new blessings into our lives. God always can come up with another plan. If you will stop feeling sorry for yourself and, instead, do what the Bible says, your future can be brighter than ever.

Maybe you have put a lot of time, effort, and resources into your plan. You've prayed about it; you have believed. Maybe you have spent a lot of money. But now you can clearly see that the door is closing, and you are disappointed. Right there is where you must dare to trust God, knowing that He has another plan, a better plan. He wants to do something new in your life. And you must let go of the old so you will be ready and able to receive the new plan God has for you. God will do more than you can even ask or think.

Every morning when you get up, refuse to dwell on what you did wrong the day before. Refuse to dwell on yesterday's disappointments. Get up each day knowing that God is a loving and forgiving God, and He has great things in store for you.

When you make mistakes - and we all do - humble yourself and receive God's forgiveness and mercy. Be willing to forgive yourself. Don't live in regret. Regret will only interfere with your faith. Faith must always be a present-tense reality, not a distant memory. God will turn those disappointments around. He will take your scars and turn them into starts for His glory.