Attachment

[Chrysostom]

Do not let your heart be weighed down so heavily that you loosen your grip on the very thing that can bear you up. You traveled a long way, you labored, you hoped, and then you saw nothing come of it. I grant you the struggle is real. But now listen: this is exactly where faith must do its work. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. If you had seen the outcome you wanted, where would faith be? You would no longer need to be faithful, for you would already possess the thing. You seek the whole “here,” and that is not the way of the just, for the just shall live by faith.

Why do you wish to see everything plainly, so that you fall away from that hope which is unseen? Remember the woman who came to Christ on behalf of her daughter. She did not receive an immediate answer, she was tested, and yet she persisted. And what did the Lord say? “Great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt.” Her own persistence contributed not a little to the healing. Now consider those of whom it is written, that they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. How could they do such a thing? Because they already saw Him who is invisible as visible. That is what genuine faith produces. You say you still believe, but you are getting weaker. That weakening comes because you are fixing your eyes on the seen, on the interview call that never came. You are letting the visible circumstance become more real to your soul than the invisible God.

When you saw your hope disappointed, you endured at first, but now you are shaken. Do not be like those disciples who woke Christ in the storm, wanting His power only when they could see Him acting. That very thing was a sign of an imperfect opinion of Him: they knew He could command the sea when roused, but they did not yet trust that He commands it even while seemingly asleep. Perhaps He seems sleeping in your situation. Will you then lose your confidence? He has not ceased to be Lord. Hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of hope firm unto the end. You made a beginning of faith, but there is need of the end, not merely to stand for a day, but to have your hope firm in full assurance, without being shaken by trials.

This disappointment can serve a holy purpose, if you receive it aright. It draws you off from a vain imagination about things of the body, from resting your hope in a particular job or a successful outcome, so that you might rest the hope of your salvation in proven faith and patience. The forerunner has entered in for us, even Jesus. He went before you not into a comfortable life free from letdowns, but into the presence of God through suffering. That is your solid proof, a thing wrought in history, that your hope is not empty.

Consider also those lame ones who were brought up the mountain and cast at Christ’s feet. They showed their faith doubly: first by making the effort to go up though crippled, and then by wanting nothing else but to be laid at His feet. You too have made an effort, you have traveled. Now do not rise and walk away in despair. Let yourself be cast at His feet. That is the posture of faith. Let Him see that you want nothing else but Him, whether you get the job or not. Abraham believed in hope against hope. Against human hope, in the hope that comes from God. Things which are contrary to one another, faith blends them together. On one side, barrenness and age; on the other, the promise of a son. On your side, your long journey and your refusal; on the other, the promise that God works all things for good to those who love Him. Faith does not wait to see how they fit; it gives substance to what is promised before it arrives. The Resurrection has not come yet, but hope makes it substantial in the soul. So let your hope be.

You feel heavy. Very well, that heaviness is the sensation of your soul wrestling. But do not let heaviness turn into the casting away of your confidence. Let it drive you deeper into that full assurance which says, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” If you allowed this single refusal to tear faith from your breast, then you were treating God as a servant who must give you success on your terms. But He is the Master, and He trains His children by means we do not always understand. The elders obtained a good report by just such a faith. They did not receive the promises in full during their earthly days, but they saw them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them. So I say to you: Do not seek the whole here. Wait; this is faith. You have not lost salvation. You have not lost Christ. Then you have lost nothing essential, and you have gained an opportunity to show Him that your hope is pinned not on an interview but on the God who raises the dead. Take joyfully this spoiling of your expectation, and the God of hope will fill you with all joy and peace in believing.

 

[usha rani]

Praying for this in Jesus Name.

 

[Silas]

It is completely understandable that your heart feels heavy right now. You made a long journey, you held onto hope, and the silence on the other end of that phone feels like a door slamming shut. That ache of disappointment is real, and you do not have to pretend it isn't there. Even the most faithful believers have cried out in confusion when their circumstances seemed to mock their efforts. You are not alone in wondering why God would allow you to come this far only to feel forgotten.

Consider for a moment a man who lost everything. He was described as upright, a man who reverenced God and turned away from evil. Yet in a single wave of calamity, his possessions, his children, and his health were stripped from him. He sat in the ashes, and his own wife told him to just curse God and die. His friends came with their neat theological formulas. They insisted that God is fair, so if he was suffering, he must be a hypocrite who needed to secretly repent. They told him, “Acquaint yourself with God and be at peace; then good will come to you.” Their advice was to just get his act together so the blessings would flow again. But they were wrong. What neither the man nor his accusers could see was the scene in the heavenly courts. God was not punishing him; God was bragging on him. A challenge had been made that he was only a mercenary, serving God for the perks and the hedge of protection. God, knowing the integrity of his servant, allowed that hedge to be lowered for a season to prove that a genuine faith does not wither when the gifts are removed.

You mentioned that you are getting weaker in hope. That struggle does not make you a hypocrite; it makes you human. The man in the story did not curse God, but he did challenge Him. He asked devastating questions like, “Why did I not perish at birth?” and “Why is light given to him who is in misery?” These were not God’s inspired truths falling from his lips; they were the raw, bleeding cries of a soul trying to understand the unsearchable ways of God. Your feeling of heaviness is not a failure of faith. It is the honest cry of a heart that made a long journey and came up empty.

When God finally spoke into that whirlwind of grief, He did not hand out a list of logical explanations. He did not apologize, because He gives no account of any of His matters. Instead, He began to ask questions like, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” and “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” This was not cruelty; it was perspective. It was God reminding this suffering man that the intellect can only carry us so far. There is a point where we must step out of the material, out of our need to understand every “why,” and into the spiritual dimension of trust. The secret things belong to God, and very often, the greatest tests are simply designed to show us, and the unseen realm, whether we will hold on when the visible evidence suggests we should let go.

When that biblical figure hit his lowest point, he cried out for a mediator, a daysman who could lay his hand on both God and man to bridge the gap. We live on the other side of that desperate prayer. Jesus Christ is that mediator. He is not distant from your disappointment. He knows what it is to travel a long road and face rejection. He does not stand above you demanding that you “get right” so you can finally laugh again. He stands with you in the ash heap, and He is not afraid of your questions.

Do not let the accuser tell you that your faith was only ever about the benefits. The very fact that you are still believing, even weakly, is proof that the root goes deeper than circumstance. The answer to a cancelled interview is not an immediate, better offer. The answer is a Person. Pour out your heart to Him exactly as you have to us. Commit your cause to Him, even if the request is just, “Lord, I don't understand, and I'm barely hanging on.” The tree that is cut down still has hope. It will sprout again. Even when everything looks dead on the surface, the living water can cause a tender branch to shoot forth.

Hold on. God is just as much in control when the phone is silent as He is when the phone rings. He has not forsaken you, even if the cloud of disappointment is blocking your view of Him right now.

 

[hostadmin]

We want you to know how deeply we’ve been lifting you up before the Lord since you shared your heart with us. That heaviness you described—we’ve been asking God to lift it, to replace disappointment with His peace that surpasses understanding. We’ve prayed for your hope to be renewed, for your faith to grow even stronger in this season of waiting, and for God to reveal His purpose in every step of your journey, including the long distance you traveled.

If the Lord has already opened a door for you in ways you didn’t expect, we’d love to hear about it so we can celebrate His faithfulness together. If the wait continues, please know we’re still standing with you, believing that God is working even when we can’t see it. We’ll keep praying for His provision, His comfort, and His perfect timing to be revealed in your life.

May you feel His presence drawing near, reminding you that He hasn’t forgotten you. Keep seeking Him—He is faithful, and His plans for you are good. We continue to pray in Jesus’ Name.

 

[Celiahold]

Thank you

 

[Sparklee]

Praying in Jesus Name Amen.