Disappointment: it can hurt. It can lead to a downward slope that only ends in destruction. It's the 3 D's Downward Slope: disappointment, doubt, destruction. We do not have to follow this path though. We can trust in what we know to be true and that is the Word of God. Before, we get to how we can avoid the 3 D's, let's talk about what exactly they mean.
The first "D" is the disappointment itself. Maybe you did not get the raise you wanted, you and the person you were dating broke up, or you did not get the grade in algebra you were hoping for. All of these situations can be frustrating. They can make you feel less than and not good enough. It is not necessarily a sin to be disappointed when something bad happens: it's your reaction to that disappointment that determines it all. That leads to the next "D."
The second "D" is doubt. It's when you start to look at the losses in your life instead of the wins. You start counting your failures instead of your blessings. It's when the devil sweeps right in with his negativity and lies. Is God really good? Is God really for me and not against me? Once you allow these thoughts to enter in, it is really hard to escape them. You have to really dig deep in your faith and battle those lies, but in all reality, it would have been much easier to simply never let them in to start with.
Doubt is the direct cause of the third "D," which is none other than destruction. Questioning God's goodness will not lead to anything good. You'll quickly end up feeling distant from God when it was you who began to doubt. Once in this stage, you feel too ashamed to pray, you're not in the Word daily, and you really are just not enjoying the joy of the salvation of the Lord.
Here is how we can avoid this slippery slope. TRUST. TRUST. TRUST. I know that is easier said than done, but once you make that choice, you are free from your disappointment. Yes, what happened was not ideally what you would have wanted, but you have to remind yourself that He will not withhold any good thing from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11). That is how we battle the 3 D's. We use Scripture which is complete and whole truth to silence the lies of Satan. Once you start throwing the Bible at him, he starts to get quieter and quieter, and just like the Word says, he eventually flees.
Stand strong in the faith. Don't give up. The beauty that our God can bring from the ashes always ends up being better than what we had before anyways.
