Dealing with Disappointment

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading titled Dealing with Disappointment was written by Allison Keita. After raising money all year for a trip of a lifetime, seniors from an Oklahoma high school arrived at the airport to learn that many of them had purchased tickets from a bogus company posing as an airline. It's heartbreaking, one school administrator said. Yet even though they had to change their plans, the students decided to make the most of it.

They enjoyed two days at nearby attractions, which donated the tickets. Dealing with failed or changed plans can be disappointing or even heartbreaking, especially when we've invested time, money, or emotion into the planning. King David had it in his heart to build a temple for God. But God told him in 1 Chronicles chapter 28, you are not to build a house for my name. Solomon, your son, is the one who will build my house.

David didn't despair. He praised God for choosing him to be king over Israel and he gave the plans for the temple to Solomon to complete. As he did, God encouraged him, be strong and courageous and do the work for the Lord God is with you. When our plans fall through, no matter the reason, we can bring our disappointment to God who cares for us.

He will help us handle our disappointment with grace. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from 1 Chronicles chapter 28 verses 2 through 3 and 6 through 12. King David rose to his feet and said, Listen to me, my fellow Israelites, my people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord, for the footstool of our God, and I made plans to build it. But God said to me, You are not to build a house for my name because you are a warrior and have shed blood.

Now picking up at verse 6. He said to me, Solomon, your son, is the one who will build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever if he is unswerving and carrying out my commands and laws as is being done at this time. So now I charge you in the sight of all Israel and the assembly of the Lord and in the hearing of our God. Be careful to follow all the commands of the Lord your God that you may possess this good land and pass it on as an inheritance to your descendants forever. And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought.

If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. Consider now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house as the sanctuary. Be strong and do the work. Then David gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico of the temple, its buildings, its storerooms, its upper parts, its inner rooms, and the place of atonement. He gave him the plans of all that the Spirit had put in his mind for the courts of the temple of the Lord and all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the temple of God, and for the treasuries for the dedicated things. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you that your promises and plans never fail. Help us as your people to adapt well when ours do fail. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Rachelle Traub and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.