Life's Disappointments
Hope in the Lord and keep His way.
Psalm 37:34
A friend of mine sent me a Youtube video of a little boy who learns he is getting another sister, perhaps you have seen it? In the middle of his meltdown he laments, “It’s always girls, girls, girls, girls!”
The story gives an amusing glimpse into human expectations, but there is nothing funny about disappointment. It saturates our world. One story from the Bible is especially steeped in disappointment. Jacob agreed to work 7 years for the right to marry his boss’s daughter Rachel. But after fulfilling his contract, Jacob got a wedding night surprise. In the morning he discovered not Rachel but her sister Leah.
Often in sermons preachers, seem to focus on Jacob’s disappointment, but imagine how Leah must have felt! What hopes and dreams of hers began to die that day as she was forced to marry a man who did not love or want her?
Psalm 34:4 tells us, “Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Are we to believe that God-fearing people are never disappointed? No, the psalm clearly shows that the writer sees injustice all around him. But he takes the long view: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him” (v 7). His conclusion: “The meek will inherit the land” (v 11).
In the end, it was Leah whom Jacob honoured and buried in the family grave plot with Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah (Gen 49:31). And it was through the lineage of Leah—who in life thought she was unloved—that God blessed the world with our Saviour. Jesus Christ brings justice, restores hope, and gives us an inheritance beyond our wildest dreams.
I wonder, is your trust in Him who never disappoints ?
Read
Genesis 29:14-30.
Prayer
Father God, Thank You for the Lord Jesus, who is the only friend who never disappoints. Amen.
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