“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.” Psalm 62:5
The last thing I ever expected considering how often people have let me down through the years is I would feel compelled to write a devotional about the BLESSING of people letting you down. But God in His amazing love and mercy has countless times over the years used some of the hardest places I have walked as some of the greatest opportunities to grow me in my relationship with Him and to help others through my speaking and writing to grow also. Such is the case with people letting me down.
We all have our stories, don’t we? My story has been super hard for me, but absolutely NOTHING whatsoever in hardness compared with countless other people’s stories worldwide. Nevertheless, I readily confess I have been broken through the years not only by my own despicable sin but also by the number of times and the exceeding intensity of people’s words, actions, rejection, abandonment, neglect, abuse, and the beyond description number of times they have failed to love, encourage, help, and support me, follow through on promises they made, keep commitments, show up for me, been willing to help and support my ministry work, and to lend a helping heart and hand in caring for the rescued dogs I have had in my care. I wish I could say this has gotten better; but the more I have followed Christ, the worse this has grown. But the worse it has grown, the greater the BLESSING that has come. The BLESSING?
- I have developed an unfathomably glorious relationship with God.
- I have learned my trust, hope, focus, dependence, provision, expectation, all that I need and desire, must be in Christ.
- I have been mightily convicted of how often I have hurt others with a desire more than ever to repent and love and give to them, and treat them, as I would desire.
- I have an amazing compassion, sensitivity, and understanding now of others who have been hurt and broken by people.
- I have learned the difference between intellectually believing in Christ and following Him as Lord and being willing to accept suffering as a precious gift by which I am conformed to Christ.
- I am learning to die to self and my desires including concerning people and relationships and to live for Christ and His desire for my life.
- Every way in which I have clung and cleaved to people and what I have wanted and expected of them, I learn daily to cleave to the Lord God almighty instead and thereby have a relationship with Christ beautiful beyond imagination.