Virginia Brandt Berg (1898-1968)
I want to give you this Verse from 2 Corinthians 1:10, "For it is God who rescued us from such a perilous death, and He will still rescue us. And on Him have we set our hope that He will again deliver us from danger and destruction and draw us to Himself."
I have been thinking a great deal about those who have suffered disappointment. The word "disappointment" has been on my mind a great deal. You know, some people take disappointment so differently than others. There are those that have so grown in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and are mature Christians, that they don't worry when there is some disappointment.
No matter how much they look forward to some occasion, or some dear one coming or something they expected, if it doesn't mature, the thing they wanted so badly doesn't happen, that doesn't seem to move them at all! They are like the Apostle Paul.
They are such steadfast, immovable Christians, they can say, "None of these things move me." (Acts 20:24.) -- And it's true about them! They've gotten so grounded in the Word of God and so close to the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ that they take all things as from Him.
They accept all that happens in their life as if it came from His hand, and to them there are not any disappointments! There is a little poem which reads, "Disappointment just take the letter "D" off and put "H" there and it's His appointment!"
These mature Christians, so grounded, so established in the Word, just take any disappointment as His appointment for them! To be so deeply disappointed and to get your heart broken over disappointments is almost childish, and Paul said that when he was old he put away childish things, and that he thought as a man and spoke as a man.
I remember as a child when my father was pastor of the Christian Church in St. Louis, Missouri and they'd planned a large picnic at Forrest Park and oh, I was looking forward to it so! There had been great preparations, lunch was ready and there had been a bustling about the house all morning long getting ready for that afternoon picnic.
And suddenly clouds came and it just poured down raining! I was so broken-hearted that I wept and I moped for the rest of the evening! I've had similar things happen since then, but never any disappointments or an attitude of that kind.
I pray that God will keep us all in that place where we accept sweetly His Will! I ran across such a precious poem and I believe it will be a blessing to your heart:
It does not matter
What it means, poor heart,
The dear Lord knows.
To bear it is your part.
Nor think some
Strange thing happened unto you
Which He would not allow
If He knew.
Well He does know!
In all His Fatherhood
He knows and allows it for your good
He is not hard.
You do not think He is
When in the dark
You find your hand in His.
When it was light
You tried to walk alone
And thought the strength
He gave you
All your own.
You did not ask
What that last blessing meant,
Just smiled and took it,
Satisfied, content.
You didn't think it strange,
You thought He knew,
And planned the sweet surprise
That came to you.
Then do you, tried one,
Take life sweet and good
Yet cannot trust
That tender Fatherhood?
But think It makes mistakes
Whene'er it sends some hindrance
Which your eager haste offends?
Or when He lets the wicked
Plot you harm
And stir a whirlwind
When you seek a calm?
You think it strange, this disappointment so keen,
And in your weakness ask, "What does it mean?"
I think the language
Of God's heart would read,
"I love my child
I note his slightest need.
I long to prosper him
In all his ways
To give him quiet nights
And peaceful days.
But if I do
He'll lose himself from Me,
My outstretched hand
He will wait to see,
I'll place a hindering wall
Before his feet,
And there he'll wait,
And there we two will meet.
I do it not in wrath
For broken laws
Or willful disobedience,
But because I want him near Me
And I cannot wait
For him to come
For he might wander late.
My child will wonder,
Will not understand,
Still half in doubt
He'll clasp My outstretched hand.
And when at last
Upon My heart he leans,
He will have ceased to wonder
What it means."
You wonder what the disappointment means? Oh my friend, He isn't any disappointment! If you'll trust everything in His hands, then all your glowing day dreams you'd fancied, Christ to be in them!
The more I get to know Him
The more I find Him true
The more I long that others
Should be led to know Him too!
He's no disappointment! Put everything in His hands, and if something like that comes, it shall work for good for you, through Him. Amen.