Vitamins for spiritual health (3)

Never allow life’s disappointments to make you cynical. If you live long enough, people will disappoint you including your family. Even spiritual leaders will let you down! Paul wrote: ‘We wanted to come to you even I, Paul, time and again but Satan hindered us’ (1Thessalonians 2:18 NKJV). Did you think satan was going to send you a congratulatory telegram because you decided to serve the Lord? Not a chance!

The walk of faith is one of delight and difficulty. When you sign on for the first, you sign on for the second. Paul was a sixteen-month missionary journey, one of miracles and church building. But he ended up in prison on trumped-up charges and was left to rot there. How did he respond? ‘Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!’ (Philippians 4:4 NKJV).

You say, ‘How can somebody rejoice in prison?’ when you see your disappointment as God’s appointment, you start to understand its purpose. Paul had books to write that will change the world, so God needed to get him ‘off the road.’ Listen to what he wrote from prison: ‘I want you to know…that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News.

For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear’ (Philippians 1:12-14 NLT). Hidden in some of your biggest disappointments, you will find treasures of truth that literally transform your life and your future.