Every disappointment is for an appointment with God.

If you are disappointed, lonely and distressed; be attentive and stay awake, for there will be an appointment at any time – God will hear your cry. Your disappointment is for an appointment with God.

Have you ever come across disappointment that did not give way to an appointment with God while you walked in justice? No, you cannot. Here are few examples from the Scripture, whose disappointments turned to appointments with God, as a result grace and mercy flowed into their lives.

Our Father Abraham had lost all his hope for having a child at the age of hundred and Sarah in her nineties. The Lord appeared to him by the Oaks of Mamre (Gen: 18:1) in a disguised form of three strangers but Abraham realized them at once as the angels of God. ‘It is important to recognize the voice of God, His image and His time of appointment in the midst of our pains, sufferings and troubles of life.’

Abraham was very attentive to God’s voice as he walked in justice and righteousness for a century. As a result his pain for not having an offspring ended in an appointment with God. Though Sarah was incapable of bearing a child, Abraham grabbed the grace of having one at the time of appointment. They appeared to be three ordinary men but Abraham realized God in them which changed his mourning into dancing and his disappointment to a favorable appointment.

Going further we see, Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth, both righteous before God and advanced in years yet, they hadn’t the blessing of having an offspring. It was very inspiring to know that they were still praying for a son and waiting for an appointment with God. It is clear when the angel appeared to Zachariah saying, “Don’t be afraid, God has heard your prayers and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son”. (Luke: 1:13) The example of Zachariah would inspire many childless couple to knock at the Heaven’s door with faith and trust.

It is interesting to note how God arranged for an appointment with Zechariah in the temple while the multitude of people were praying outside, at the hour of incense. Did this appointment take place by chance? No, not at all. It was pre-planned centuries ago. Will He not have such plans and appointments in our case too? Surely, so stay awake! We need to recognize His voice and His image in the midst of our disappointments.

At the time of Jesus there was a chief tax collector named Zacchaeus, who was rich with regard to money but with poor self image (Lk.19:2). Being a tax collector his poor image in the public and his small stature disturbed him and pained him at times. This pain and loneliness led him to seek for an appointment with God. Here Zacchaeus took the initiative and the trouble to climb the sycamore accepting his poor stature. His limitations brought him and his family closer to Jesus. Zacchaeus regained his lost image, confidence and peace of mind at the appointment with God. What about us, do we make our every appointment with God, a source of blessing, peace and joy?

When we are lonely, distressed, troubled and disappointed, it is natural to cry out to the Lord for help. Our God is a living God who is ever attentive to the cry of His children. Often God takes the initiative for an appointment as in the case of Abraham, Zechariah and many of us.

At times God rewards persons who take the first step for an appointment, just as we see in the life of Zacchaeus. In any case if you are disappointed and seeking justice you are sure to have an appointment with God, which would lead you to peace, joy, contentment, healing, success and blessings.

- – - written by Sr. Mercy Pottokaran OSB

Happy those early days! when I
Shin’d in my angel-infancy.
Before I understood this place
Appoint’d for my second race,
Or taught my soul to fancy ought
But a white, celestial thought,
When yet I had not walk’d above
A mile, or two, from my first love,
And looking back (at that short space,)
Could see a glimpse of his bright face;
When on some gild’d cloud or flower
My gazing soul would dwell an hour,
And in those weaker glories spy
Some shodows of eternity;
Before I taught my tongue to wound
My conscience with a sinful sound,
Or had the black art to dispence
A sev’ral sin to ev’ry sense,
But felt through all this fleshly dress
Bright shoots of everlastingness.

O how I long to travel back
And tread again that ancient track!
That I might once more reach that plain,
Where first I left my glorious train,
From whence th’enlightened spirit sees
That shady city of palm trees;
But (ah!) my soul with too much stay
Is drunk, and staggers in the way.
Some men a forward motion love,
But I by backward steps would move,
And when this dust falls to the urn
In that state I came return.

- – - written by Henry Vaughan

Poem Analysis :

Henry Vaughan was a Welsh poet who wrote in the latter half of the 17th century. He experienced a conversion to Christianity later in life, and much of his work is marked by this.

“The Retreat” is based on the belief that we exist as souls in heaven before we are born on Earth. Those who follow this belief also believe that babies are inherently sin-free, as they have just come from heaven. Throughout the poem, the speaker references this “angel-infancy” when life was perfect and filled with the presence of God, his “first love.” He longs to return to this idyllic existence before he became marked by sin, “Before I taught my tongue to wound/My conscience with a sinful sound.”

In this poem, Henry Vaughan is bemoaning his sins and wishing that he could go back to a purer state, one where his soul was free from sin. In the poem, he talks about how, before this life, his soul was pure and sinless. He contrasts that pure state with his state on earth where he has a different kind of sin for every sense in his body. He closes by saying that he hopes that there will not be much more of a delay before he can return to this sinless state of being.

So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. – (1 Corinthians 12:3)

Jesus is Lord

As we think of God as Father, Son, and Spirit, our minds quickly become overwhelmed. God is greater than our greatest thought and more complex than our most insightful moment can help us comprehend. But there is a truth that I believe we can all understand.

The Spirit will never lead us to say anything untruthful or unholy about God — as Father, Son, or Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God convicts us of the truth, gives us insight into truth, and empowers us to declare truth. To be able to confess Christ as Lord with a heart full of faith is both a declaration of our commitment and testimony to God’s grace. The Holy Spirit unlocks our minds and empowers our hearts to confess Jesus as Lord!

John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Colossians 1:15 says, “He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” Jesus provides eternal hope, through God’s grace, for everyone who believes He is Lord.

God loves the world and all He has created. However, people have chosen to separate from God through our sins. Jesus provides the bridge for us to receive God’s grace of forgiveness for our sins and fulfill the hope of eternal life. This was the purpose of Jesus Christ and why Jesus is Lord.

Jesus led a life that was completely obedient to God; something we cannot do regardless how hard we try through our will power or by the level of wisdom we possess. Everyone has sinned except Christ; He was perfect in love. This is only something God can be. Jesus performed over 23 documented and witnessed miracles over nature, overcoming death and powers of healing that have never been matched or done in the history of the world.

Jesus had powers that only God could possess. He had the ability to predict the future as indicated in the book of Mark, verse 14:72 and the book of Matthew, verse 16:18. Jesus honored God throughout every event in His life. He was humble and gentle mirroring God’s Spirit. This is further proof why Jesus is Lord.

So friends, have no doubt : Jesus is Lord, our God.

Prayer:

Father in heaven, because of your grace and the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus, I confidently confess that Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord of all things, seen and unseen, and I want him to be Lord of my heart as I seek to live the lifestyle of your Kingdom. I know my ability to do any of this comes as a gift from your grace and the leading of the blessed Holy Spirit. I offer you — Father, Son, and Spirit — my thanks! Amen.