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Title: Never Guilty—Never Disappointed Post by: Netchaplain on June 05, 2013, 09:47:34 AM A believer can be discouraged or dissatisfied but does not have to be disappointed, cast upon hardness but not cast down, intentionally offended but not offended, heartbroken but joyous in Christ.
The access to disappointment is dependence on self or others but dependence on God never disappoints. If we depend on His Word that, “All things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28), there cannot exist a justifiable disappointment for the believer? If we depend on His Word that the believer is completely cleared and guilt-free of sin’s eternal curse of damnation, which is the greatest of grace’s gifts because it allows eternal fellowship with Him, we are entirely fictional in finding disappointment. Discouragement and self-disappointment is expected during the “babe in Christ” stages, but during the maturing stages (which has no pinnacle) one finally learns that everything that is desired, even in the disruption and distraction of the “old man,” ultimately results in, “to will and to do of His good pleasure,” because He, “works in you” this overall (Phil 2:13). We can and should be dissatisfied with our “old man” when we encounter its workings from self and others, but we never need to allow disappointment (which is faith-building), considering that God not only foreknows all our occurrences but also foreknows that our ultimate desire in them is to please Him. Can the believer truly incur any type of real guilt (not even self-induced, which would be nonexistent) on the conscience of his person when affected by the “old man,” considering God has, regardless of any situation, already declared innocence on him (but not on the old man, for sin is never forgiven when condemned—Rom 8:3)? The believer’s overriding contemplation, esp. in the most heartbroken of times, can be his guiltless condition in which the Father, through His Son, our Lord Jesus has placed him and this alone can allow freedom from over-expecting more from self than what God expects; yea, which He also foreknows and thus is never condemning but chastising, loving and instructional. |