To deal with suffering and disappointments, we need God’s perspective on life.

What does all of this mean for me?

It’s not disappointments that hold us back. It’s the perception of the disappointments. It’s not necessarily the pain that holds us back. It’s how we feel about the pain. Even though we’re all going to face difficulties, God is there right beside us helping to rejoice and experience inner joy in the midst of the junk.

Pain will happen but we don’t have to wallow in misery. You can’t side-step pain but you can miss out on God’s perspective of suffering, pain or disappointments - even in the midst of pain and disappointment.

To deal with suffering and disappointments, we need God’s perspective on life.

5) The ultimate answer to life’s disappointments is the hope of heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body– but not the end of me. I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act - the dress rehearsal.

Today’s suffering can mean tomorrow’s glory. God is not accomplishing all His purposes today, nor is He explaining all His plans to us right now.

Hope pumps life into the inner person. Ambition is a kind of emotional adrenalin that keeps us aspiring to better and greater achievement. I’m not speaking a hope in hope or a faith in faith but a hope and faith in the Lord. We need to understand that when it comes to our dreams and aspirations for life God is not in the business of teasing us by putting a carrot on a stick permanently out of our reach. He is not some cruel master who wants us to jump like dogs, only to lift our desired dreams barely above our highest reach.

While there’s life, there’s hope. Hope in heaven is a 100% certainty … that God gives to every single follower of Christ. It’s his promise to us!

Hope in the future can keep us going. Like Job we too can say, Job 19 [25] I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. [26] And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; [27] I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

Job knew that there was One who would redeem him from the present trouble in the future - in heaven! Death is not the final chapter in life … death is the door to experiencing the presence of God for an eternity in heaven!

1 John 5 [11] And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. [12] Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. [13] I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

2 Corinthians 4 [17] For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! [18] So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Romans 8 [18] Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

Hebrews 10 [35] Think back on those early days when you first learned about Christ. Remember how you remained faithful even though it meant terrible suffering. … [34] You knew there were better things waiting for you that will last forever. [35] So do not throw away this confident trust in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you! 36 Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

Maybe you’re thinking, “I can’t do it. I have tried this. I can endure, but I can’t rejoice. And, it bothers me when I see these pious Christians who go around with a smile screwed to their faces and they pretend like they are enjoying suffering.” I don’t blame you … I get upset at this too! When Paul is talking about rejoicing in suffering he’s not talking about being excited about the suffering. Authentic rejoicing in suffering has to do with rejoicing in the hope that we have even in the midst of the suffering. What is that hope? The hope of heaven one day but also the hope that He is getting ready to enjoy heaven right now by molding us and refining us through trials and suffering.

To deal with suffering and disappointments, we need God’s perspective on life.

4) God allows tragedy and disappointment to interrupt our lives so that He can comfort us.

2 Corinthians 1 [3] All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. [4] He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

Once He has helped us mend, He will bring others across our path that we can identify with and therefore comfort them. This is part of God’s strategy in maturing us. God is in the business of developing comforters. And the best comforter is the one who has been through the same pain or sorrow that we have and emerged from it a better person.

Just like Job, we might ask, “God, Why did You let this happen to me?” This may lead to an attitude which believes that God has his hands tied. To be fair, we must confess that nobody knows how many times God has intervened to stop tragedy and disaster. All we know are the times when He didn’t. God proves that He is in control, not by intervening constantly and preventing all tragedy and disaster, but by ruling and overruling them so that even tragedy ends up accomplishing His ultimate purposes.

To deal with suffering and disappointments, we need God’s perspective on life.

3) Disappointment loosens our grip on unimportant things in life.

James 1 [2] Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, [3] because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. [4] Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Romans 5 [3] Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; [4] perseverance, character; and character, hope. [5] And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

When disappointment comes, the things that are of little value in life suddenly don’t matter anymore. We find ourselves clinging tightly to the things that really matter: our relationships with God and each other.

To deal with suffering and disappointments, we need God’s perspective on life.

2) Re-focus on the ultimate goal in life: Christlikeness.

Job 42 [5] I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. [6] I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.

Job gained deeper spiritual understanding. He had the eyes of a renewed faith. He had a deeper insight into God’s character. Comparing this new awareness of God with his previous experience is like comparing seeing with hearing. Christianity is meant to be a personal relationship with God in which we grow closer to Him. Being humbled through suffering is meant to draw us closer to Him. When you are flat on your back it’s easier to look up! What else can you do!

Romans 8 [28] And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into His plans.

All things work together for good — not necessairly for pleasure, comfort, prosperity, health, or joy, but for good. It’s the perspective of the temporary vs. the eternal. How can Paul say that he would rather glory in his bad health? This is what kept him humble so that God could use him. He knew that his own pride would have kept him out of touch with God’s eternal purpose for him. We must look at suffering through the eyes of perspective

2 Corinthians 12 [10] Since I know it is all for Christ’s good, I am quite happy about “the thorn,” and about insults and hardships, persecutions and difficulties; for when I am weak, then I am strong - the less I have, the more I depend on Him.

So the good has to do with molding me into being more like Christ. It’s only then that I will understand the spiritual journey that I began more fully. All things work together for the one good purpose of being made more like Christ. It takes a variety of experiences to cause this to happen. Some of those experiences include suffering. A diamond has to be cut to bring out its beauty. Gold must be refined to bring out its purity. The vine must be pruned to bear more fruit. Clay needs to be molded before it becomes a magnificent work of art. In the same way the child of God must be cut, refined, pruned and molded to become more like Christ. God has not promised to make us totally comfortable, but He has determined to make us conformable.

Beware of falling into the trap of cut and dried theologies that reduce the ways of God to a manageable formula that keeps life safe and comfortable. That’s not always God’s plan for us! Look for God’s higher purpose in your life. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity. We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.