Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Have you ever been disappointed? It is not fun to deal with disappointment in your life. Often times, people you thought highly of—or had an expectation of—just didn't meet that expectation. Sometimes we can be disappointed with ourselves. How many of us are disappointed with ourselves that we may have already let go of our New Year's resolution?
Sometimes we struggle with disappointment in our lives because disappointment is typically based on unrealized expectations. We have an expectation of something and it just doesn't happen. Our Verse of the Day addresses disappointment, but there are so many more positive and powerful things behind this verse that I'd love to get into today.
In Romans chapter 5, verse 5, this is what it says: "And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love."
When We Feel Disappointed in God
When we start off the verse—"And this hope will not lead to disappointment"—a lot of us are thinking about the hope we're talking about, the hope we have in Christ and the relationship we have with the Lord. If we were really honest with ourselves, some of us may feel, or think, or believe that we've actually had times when we were disappointed in God. You may say, I shouldn't say that. I shouldn't think that. But sometimes you have an expectation that you're expecting God to perform or behave a certain way, and that goes unrealized and it doesn't happen.
So, we become disappointed. Sometimes the disappointment we may feel towards God is actually because of church wounds or hurts, or something a person in your life did—someone we looked to and had an expectation of godliness, or someone we looked at as spiritual, where they disappointed us or hurt us. That, in turn, can be a reflection of disappointment in the hope that we have in God.
What Kind of Hope Doesn't Disappoint?
That's why I'd love to just be honest with ourselves about this verse. When it says "this hope will not lead to disappointment," what hope is that, then? If it doesn't lead to disappointment and we've felt disappointment in different places in our spiritual lives, what does that really look like?
The key to this hope that doesn't lead to disappointment is to reflect on your love for God. This verse talks about: "For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love." That's why Scripture also says, "We love God because He first loved us."
Do You Love God for Who He Is?
Let's take a minute—when we talk about whether we really love God, what is our love based on? If I asked you, do you love God? Probably all of us would say, absolutely! I love Jesus. But do you love God because of what He does for you?
Let's be honest, because a lot of times that is understandable. The most popular verse in the Bible, John 3:16: "For God so loved the world"—we love God because He gave His only Son for us. Again, it's what He did for us. But let me ask you this: the more intimate and deeper you go in your relationship with Christ and your relationship with God, that love should grow beyond what He did for us in the sacrifice of His Son to—do you love God for who He is? Do you love God for the close relationship you have with Him?
If we translated this to a physical relationship with our peers, friends, or family, we probably wouldn't base it on, I love them because they do what I want them to do, when I want them to do it. We'd think, I don't like that kind of relationship. But do we have that kind of relationship with God—one that goes beyond what He does for us, and is actually about who He is? One where we love and appreciate what He brings into our relationship and what our relationship has developed into?
A Hope Built on God’s Love
That's why when we look at "And this hope will not lead to disappointment," it's because that hope is actually built on a true, authentic, passionate love for God, for who He is and what He does in our life. Not what He gives us, or what we expect Him to do for us, but who He is in our life and what He brings us.
That's why we can rest in and enjoy this: "He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love." How powerful that is in our life today. May you feel the love of God truly fill your heart today through His Spirit, because that is a hope that will never disappoint.