Handling Disappointment and Moving Forward

Handling Disappointment and Moving Forward

Date: November 4, 2026

Series: The View From Above (Thoughts to Help With Everyday Life)

Author: Pastor Paul Stephens

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We are invested in outcomes. We pray for them, we make decisions that we think will achieve a particular result… and then? DISAPPOINTMENT!

How you handle your disappointments is going to determine a lot about your faith, your courage, and your ability to stick to the plan. In our pursuit of God's perfect will, there are going to be disappointments along the way, sometimes a lot of them and sometimes seasons of one disappointment after another.

The most inspiring people to me are the ones who faced disappointment, sometimes catastrophic setbacks, and shattered dreams… and they got up and kept on going. They became better for the experience. We develop resilience, which is the ability to bounce back after a failure or an outcome other than what we anticipated.

Talk about disappointment; consider Moses. One mistake, he struck the rock in frustration and anger instead of speaking to the rock as God told him to do (Numbers 20)….and then, no promised land for him. It is what he longed for the most. Denied! He got to see it, but it would be Joshua who would lead the Children of Israel over the Jordan River into their inheritance. After the mistake, after God's denial… He continues faithfully to lead, and he was an inspiring figure. He bounced back from disappointment and found a way to move forward in the will of God.

Consider Elijah; right after his massive victory over the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, he received a death threat from Queen Jezebel (1 Kings 19). That is not the outcome that he anticipated. He thought Jezebel would be impressed, even intimidated by his great victory over her false prophets. Nope… the death threat was a massive disappointment that initially he didn't handle very well. He becomes emotionally exhausted, isolates himself thinking that Israel is not going to turn back to God, and his life is being wasted. He fled into the desert, sat under a broom tree, and prayed that God would take his life, saying, "I have had enough, Lord" [1 Kings 19:4].

"But Elijah went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, 'It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!'"

Well, he didn't remain in that state of mind for long… he was able to snap out of it and get back to the business of serving God. If God had not intervened, this disappointment may have finished him off. That's why I say: How you handle your disappointments is going to go a long way to defining your life. So be careful.

Are you facing disappointment right now? Where is it located? What are you going to do? Wallow in self-pity, get mad at God, strike out at others, those closest to you, or find someone to blame? All of that would be a useless, harmful, and even dangerous exercise.

So stop and get a grip. Disappointments, setbacks, even our own failures don't define us… how we respond to them does. So respond with hope and faith, be encouraged, and get back in the arena and start moving forward again. Why, because you can, because you must.

[Psalms 42:11]

"Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God."