6/18 Inner Healing Disappointment Bible Study
There is disappointment that comes from three places: life, others, and ourselves.
What are examples of disappointments from life/others/ourselves?
- Life: natural disasters, family emergencies, health complications, career pitfalls, academic failures
- Others: betrayal, sinned against, manipulation, hatred
- Ourselves: idolatry, lack of discernment/understanding, personal sin
How does God respond when He sees His children disappointed by life/others/ourselves?
Today I want to address another type of disappointment: when we’ve been disappointed by God.
Read 2 Kings 4:8-37
- How did Elisha come to meet the Shunammite woman?
- How did the woman respond to Elisha’s prophecy about the birth of a son? Why?
- Elisha’s raises her hopes on a longing she had already buried long ago. She’s fearful of being disappointed. But God is granting her a son!
- Why doesn’t she bury him in a grave? What does that show about her heart posture?
- She’s still holding on to hope.
- To whom does she look to when her son dies?
- God’s representative, Elisha.
- Is there another story in the Bible that comes to mind when we read verses 27 and 28?
- Mary of Bethany
Job is another great example of someone undergoing great disappointment. Someone read Job 1:9-11.
Satan is accusing Job that he only fears God because of how much He’s blessed Job.
These stories are descriptive of God’s character, not prescriptive of what God must do. The moral of the Shunammite story and Job is not to expect God to eventually meet or makeup all our unmet expectations.
“The Bible records miracles to show God’s capability and compassion, not to give us formulas for getting similar results.”
These stories, instead, are testing whether we want God Himself more than what He can give us. It’s testing if our faith can authentically confess that God Himself is more fulfilling than the sum of all our fulfilled expectations. Disappointment is not belittled by Scripture — laments and complaints are littered all throughout Scripture — but it is labeled as temporary. Because disappointment was not in the heart of the Creator.
It’s inaccurate to say that God is the source of disappointment since He didn’t create it. In fact, He was the first to experience disappointment. When we realize God was the first to experience disappointment, we’re able to more clearly understand his compassion.
Katlyn gave a testimony of her hellish season following undergrad. Her boyfriend, whom our whole community expected to propose to her soon, had broken up with her with little notice beforehand. Her father used her mom’s credit card to fuel his gambling addiction. He lost it all and Katlyn along with the rest of her family were the ones liable to pay off the debt. She got fed up with God and lamented:
Do you know how it feels to love someone so much but they don’t love you back? Do you know how it feels to pay off a debt you didn’t owe?
And it’s in God’s answer, she experienced God’s compassion: Yes I know how that feels.
Even Christ experienced disappointment at Israel’s rejection of the prophesied Messiah. He laments over Jerusalem and their unwillingness to turn to Him.
Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. — Mark 14:39
The pattern we see from these examples is the same process they undertook in addressing disappointment:
Acknowledge your hurt. Express it to God honestly. Invite God into your pain.
Inner healing isn’t simply about feeling better — it’s about developing authentic faith. This tested, refined faith is what God is looking for. It’s so important actually that Luke 18:8 says, “When the Son of Man returns will he find FAITH on the earth.”
Real faith isn’t having every expectation met. It’s clinging to God when nothing makes sense — choosing Him over blessings, comfort, or outcomes.
This is the faith we must have. It’s not the one that is the most disciplined or spiritually accoladed. It’s the one who has overcome disappointment and chose God anyway. It’s the one who has said I want YOU more than what you can give me. This is what it means to be a people of faith.