Dealing with Disappointment
Restore Your Hope, Faith, & Passion
Bart Hadaway
Dealing with Disappointment: Restore Your Hope, Faith, & Passion
©2013 by Bart Hadaway. All rights reserved.
For worldwide distribution.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963,
1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman
Foundation. Used by permission (www.Lockman.org).
Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission (www. Lockman.org).
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
ISBN 978-1-621660-89-7
Published by XP Publishing, a department of XP Ministries PO Box 1017, Maricopa, AZ 85139. XPpublishing.com
Acknowledgements
Thank you to God first and foremost for the opportunity to share in this book. In the midst of failures, shortcomings, struggles, and even battles with hopelessness and cynicisms, He has always been there to encourage me. His Word brought to me by the Holy Spirit has been constant. Thank You, Father.
Next I would like to thank my wife of thirty-two years. We have been blessed with a marriage truly made in heaven though we have had our share of trials. Kim, through it all there has never been a time when you were not faithful, loving, and encouraging to me. I love you.
I want to thank my children. There is no way we could have been more blessed. Andrea, Ashlee, and Jared, I love you with all my heart. The only hint you could have of my love for you would be through your love for your own children (Which, by the way, I am so grateful for. Keep them coming!).
To all those in my life who have inspired me, thank you. Over the years, one of my greatest joys is the amazing people God has brought into my life. Through the constant love and support of my parents and siblings and the body of Christ, I have been truly blessed. Though the body of Christ is far from perfect, how thankful I am for all the love and goodness she has given to me.
To every pastor and leader who have taken the time to pour into my life, you mean more to me than you will ever know.
I especially want to thank Patricia, Ron, and the XP team. You are amazing. The years of serving with you have been some of the best of my life.
Rob, you are a once in a lifetime friend.
There are many others that I could name individually, but I will stop here due to book space. I love you all!
It is my prayer that this book will bring healing and hope to your heart, renew your passion and focus, and regain your fight.
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: Break the Stronghold of Unbelief
Chapter 2: Disappointment With God
Chapter 3: Disappointment With Self
Chapter 4: Disappointment with Others
Chapter 5: Eternal Perspective
Other Books from XP Publishing
RESTORE YOUR HOPE!
By Patricia King
Life is full of disappointments and everyone experiences them. Therefore, it is important to deal effectively with them – to make them work for you and
not against you!
I admire Walt Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse. When he first began to develop “Mickey,” he suffered three failures and the last was a complete bankruptcy. One failure alone would have been disappointing but three would be devastating for most of us. After each disappointing failure, he continued to work on the development of his animated mouse. The fourth attempt brought his breakthrough.
Mickey Mouse is now probably the most famous animated character in the world, and even though Walt Disney has passed on, Mickey lives. After the creation of Mickey, Walt gave birth to many other characters along with Disneyland, Disneyworld, as well as countless movies and enterprises. Mr. Walt Disney overcame disappointments. He refused to allow them to hold him back.
King David in the Bible also overcame disappointment. When he returned to Ziklag, everything was destroyed, lost, and captured. He was overwhelmed with disappointment and devastation in the midst of it all, but he knew how to go to the Lord with his pain. As he poured his heart out before the Lord, he received direction to overcome the tragic situation: The Lord said, “Pursue, overtake, and recover all” (1 Samuel 30:8). David rose up in the midst of his despair and did exactly what the Lord told him to do. As a result, his victory became one of the most outstanding testimonies in the Word.
Like you, I have had my share of disappointments throughout life. Disappointments are never pleasant and sometimes are extremely painful, but in the midst of each disappointment, there is an invitation from the Lord to intentionally rise up and move on. I have learned so much from the Lord in times of disappointment as He has taken me deep into His heart, revealed profound truths, and offered nuggets of wisdom. He truly does give you the “treasures of darkness and the secret wealth of hidden places” (Isaiah 45:3).
Bart Hadaway is a champion in the Lord and has helped many walk through their times of disappointments and trials. His book will give you encouraging scriptural insights to help you overcome disappointments and move on with fresh hope and faith.
My prayer for you, my friend, is that you come to know His comfort, healing, strength, and love in your times of disappointment. His invitation is for you to journey from strength to strength and from glory to glory—and you will. Nothing can hold you back! Nothing!
“Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
You are loved!
Patricia King
Founder of Xpministries
God first appeared to Abram in Mesopotamia and made him a promise: “I will make a great nation of you through your descendants.” Now, this was quite a promise because Abram’s wife Sarai was barren – they had no children and had given up hope on the possibility. Abram believed God and obeyed Him, but then many, many years passed... and still no children.
Abram and his wife were old, way past the point that Sarai should be able to conceive a child, when God appeared to Abram again to confirm His promise to give Abram many descendants. By then, Abram had lost hope that he would have a son of his own, so he had some serious questions for God. However, when God reassured Abram of His promise, Abram made the choice to believe in God’s goodness and His words (Genesis 15:6). He began to hope again.
Yet it was at least another fourteen years before Isaac finally was born! Abraham waited over twenty-five years for God’s promise to come to pass. In the natural, it seemed impossible. But with God, all things are possible!
Primarily, this book is about hope — a hope founded in the bedrock of the goodness of God. An unshakeable confidence in His goodness will keep us filled with hope even when the storms and disappointments of life assault and at times, overwhelm us. Emotions will rise and fall but our hope can remain intact.
It is the supernatural faith of God that produces steadfast hope, and it is this hope that described Abraham when it was said of him, “Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping” (Romans 4:18 NLT).
Hope in this biblical context is much more than merely desiring for something to happen. In Greek, the word hope is elpis, and it infers pleasurable anticipation; it is the expectation or confidence that something actually is going to happen. That is the hope that sustains us!
The glory of God IS His goodness; it is the fullness of all He is. God promises that His glory and the knowledge of His glory will cover the earth (Numbers 14:21, Habakkuk 2:14), but He intends for that glory and goodness to be received and experienced by us first – His sons and daughters. Then, out of this experience, we partner with God to reveal His goodness in all the earth. As believers, when we lose our hope, the glory and goodness of God are stifled within, and others are kept from seeing it manifest. No wonder the enemy assaults the goodness of God with such fierceness!
The characteristics of God that spring out of His goodness are infinite. Within His goodness are His love, faithfulness, and mercy – everything wonderful about who He is. When you are established in the truth of His goodness, you will remain strong in hope no matter what comes your way.
Psalm 42 is a powerful chapter that reveals a man desperate for God. King David experienced the heights of God’s presence, power, and goodness, but now he finds himself in the pit of despair. However, in the midst of that despair, he chooses to remember and focus on the goodness of God. He made the choice to believe. He made the choice to praise. He made the choice to hope. Twice in this chapter he actually commanded himself to hope in God (42:5, 11).
It is never wrong to pour out your heart to God (Psalm 62:8), and it is not wrong to ask Him for help or to bring change to a situation. But ultimately, our hope must simply be based upon who He is, regardless of circumstances.
As you read this book, be as King David: encourage and strengthen yourself in the Lord (1 Samuel 30:6). Command yourself to hope in God, and declare in your heart, “I will hope continually” (Psalm 71:14).
In The Shawshank Redemption, there’s a scene that takes place in a prison yard. Two convicts are leaning against a wall while they talk. One is serving a life sentence for a murder he committed, and the other is serving a life sentence for a murder he did not commit. Andy, the man who was unjustly convicted says, “Hope is a good thing — maybe the best of things — so get busy living, or get busy dying.”
What do you say? Come on. Let’s get busy living!
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From time to time, we all face the painful experience of disappointment. Jesus said that in this world we would have tribulation, but He also encouraged us to be hopeful because He has overcome the world.
A few years back, I heard the Lord say, “The stronghold of unbelief is sown in the seed of disappointment.” God showed me that every time we experience disappointment, the enemy is there to sow his seeds of doubt, accusation, and unbelief, which ultimately develop into hopelessness.