What Are You Doing Here? | When People Disappoint Us | Move On

Now the LORD said to Samuel, “You have mourned long enough for Saul…”   1 Samuel 16:1

Tom ran his fingers through his thinning gray hair and swallowed hard before he answered. “Twenty years,” he mumbled. Pastor Ray lifted a brow. “Your wife left you twenty years ago to marry another man and you’re still mourning?” Tom nodded. “I’ve never dated another woman. I live in my mom’s basement. I go to work, come home, eat supper, watch TV, and go to bed. Every day. I don’t come to church because it hurts too bad to see happy couples. I can’t get over what happened.”

Samuel was on the verge of becoming like Tom until the Lord stopped him. “That’s it,” the Lord said. “You’ve grieved long enough over Saul’s failures. It’s time to move on.” Moving on is when we let God take over our disappointment and bring something good from it. Instead of allowing disappointment to ferment into bitterness and anger, we entrust it to God who uses it to build us. However, Satan loves to exploit our disappointments by suggesting that we make them our new god. When we allow hurts to define us, they, not God, determine our future. Disappointment is painful, so it’s okay to grieve the loss of something we cherished. But then it is time to move on. Disappointment can destroy our lives if we refuse to move on.

Final Thought:  Have you camped out on a disappointment and refused to move on? Don’t let it control your future.
Prayer: Father, search my heart and help me know myself. Have I let disappointment in someone control my choices? Have I let their treatment of me determine my self-worth? I choose to move on and let you bring good from it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.