According to the bible, faith works by love. Galatians 5:6 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.”

The Passion Translation of that verse says: “When you’re placed into the Anointed One and joined to Him, circumcision and religious obligations can benefit you nothing. All that matters now is living in the faith that is activated and brought to perfection by love.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-6 gives us a clear definition of love. It is the supernatural, God kind of love, unconditional, never failing, always patient and kind, long suffering, doesn’t envy, isn’t puffed up, doesn’t behave rudely, doesn’t seek its own, rejoices in the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. It’s pretty amazing!

I want to address the effects of disappointment that I have observed in my own life and in the life of others in this post. Disappointment is a fact of life. We all have and/or will experience it. We all have hopes to see certain things happen and when it doesn’t, we are disappointed. Disappointment can kill the kind of love spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13. We stop “bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things and enduring all things.” Disappointment in a marriage can cause a spouse to turn to another person. Disappointment in how children turn out can cause a family to turn away from them, to stop being patient and long suffering. Disappointment leads to deception. I have seen this. Disappointment moves one away from faith, away from believing all things, bearing, hoping and enduring all things.

Committing ourselves to living in the unconditional God kind of love, on the other hand, causes us to be able to see truth. We won’t be deceived. We will see clearly as God sees because we rise spiritually to a higher place. We will fulfill the will of God. We will make right decisions, if we are committed to love and to truth in all things.

Examine your heart today. Where in your life have you been disappointed in someone? Have you put distance between you and that person because you were disappointed in something they did? Sometimes emotional distance is called for when dealing with a manipulative person so that you can examine things further in order to see the truth and how you are to deal with the person, but it doesn’t mean you throw away your love and give up on them. It is easy, especially as a parent, to feel responsible for a childrens’ lives and the choices they make, but this is not what God has called us to.

As the eldest child in a family who was often called upon to “take care” of other younger children, I find this to be a trait that I have to watch in myself. I feel for others and the situations they find themselves in, but I cannot live their lives for them. I would gladly help them find an answer if they were open to that. Too often they are not. But I don’t stop loving or caring for them.

We must push through disappointment and disillusionment of heart and come back to hope and to love, to prayer and to faith in God. “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.” Psalm 42:5.

The answer to the disillusionments of life is never to turn to outward things or people. The answer is always Jesus. Let us resolve today on this first day of the new year of 2022 to hold onto love, and to faith in God and to hope.