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■ Pray together: Give thanks for your experiences, ask God for help where you need it.
■ Pray together to learn new things about God and that your relationship with God deepens and gets stronger.
Matthew 14:3-13, 23
3 Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, 4 for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.” 5 Herod wanted to kill John, but he was afraid of the people, because they considered John a prophet.
6On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much 7 that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. 8 Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”9The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted10and had John beheaded in the prison.11His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother. 12 John’s disciples came and took his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.
13When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns.
23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone,
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■ If you were disappointed by other people, forgive them. Only forgiveness truly frees you from harmful bonds to other people! If you know you should forgive someone, continue according the steps we suggest in Lesson “Growth through Forgiveness” (everyone by themselves).
■ Prayer in groups of 2 or 3: Bring your disappointment to God (describe your emotions to him) and hand over all rights to fully understand why it happened. Then ask him to fill you with his love and peace (again).
■ Pray for one another that you can have a fresh encounter with the heavenly Father (see also the scripture comments).
In life, there are disappointments. A first romance that broke, the grade in my university paper that I put so much time and effort in. When we have many great and emotional encounters with God, we’re excited about him. When things go a bit differently from expected, God seemingly isn’t doing anything about our situation and/or we don’t understand God, it can easily diminish our trust. In particular our trust in His almightiness and His goodness. Inevitably, we start to feel disappointed with God. To be disappointed with God does not necessarily mean that we’re sinning, if we learn to walk God’s way in these situations, regardless of our emotional state.
The first thing that Jesus did after this disappointing situation was to deliberately seek God (see Matthew 14:13 and Psalms 23:5). When we don’t understand God, our instinct reaction is to retreat from Him rather than to seek Him. Jesus was fully human, also in this situation. Therefore, He presumably also didn’t fully understand why it would come to such an end. But He deliberately sought God.
When we get disappointed, we first and foremost need a fresh encounter with our heavenly Father.
In another difficult situation we see that He surrounded himself with His three best friends (Matthew 26, 36-38).
If we try to understand why God didn’t do anything in a certain situation, our hearts will simply be filled with turmoil and discontent. Only rarely will God answer the question, “Why”.
But when we submit our will to His will, regardless of what we’ve been through, hold on to how the heavenly Father truly is (how Jesus shows Him to us) and hand over all the rights to full understanding of the situation, the peace of God, which is beyond our comprehension, will come into our hearts (Philippians 4,7).
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