Fourth Sunday Meditation: "Your Disappointment Is God's Appointment"

"Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever

you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort

or fall into various temptations.

Be assured and understand that the trial and

proving of your faith bring out endurance and

steadfastness and patience.

But let endurance and steadfastness and patience

have full play and do a thorough work, so that you

may be people perfectly and fully developed

with no defects, lacking in nothing."

James 1:2-4

"When they came to Marah, they could not drink its waters for they were

bitter; therefore it was named Marah (bitterness). The people murmured

against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?"

And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree which he

cast into the waters and the waters were made sweet."

Exodus 15:23-24

We still come to Bitter Pools in our lives today:

a broken marriage, a business failure, a health breakdown,

disillusionment with a human leader or perhaps

even with a human parent.

One essential element in Christian character is perseverance.

Until we achieve perseverance there are goals in God that we

can never attain.  Perseverance is brought out by testing our faith.

You see, there's really only one way to learn perseverance and that

is by persevering.  In order to persevere you have to be 

 in a situation where perseverance is needed.

James says, "Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be

mature and complete, not lacking anything."

That's God's goal for you: mature, fully grown up, complete,

a fully-rounded Christian character, not lacking anything.

Do you want that? Do you want to be mature and complete, not

lacking anything? How could you wish anything else? If you do,

you have to go through the process.  And, the process may include

your particular Marah, your particular Bitter Pool.

When you come to the Bitter Pool, there are two alternative

responses. The people grumbled, that was the response of unbelief.

But Moses prayed, that was the response of faith.

The next time you come to that Bitter Pool

  which are you going to do?

When everything is going well and life is pretty easy,

most of us tend to be somewhat superficial. We'll be content

with the status quo: to go to church, pay our tithes, say our

prayers, and lead a fairly respectable kind of life.

But God has something much further and much deeper for us.

That was God's purpose in bringing Israel to that Bitter Pool.

He had something for them to learn and He put them in a situation

where the revelation He had for them would be appropriate.

He then responded with a revelation of Himself.

First of all, He revealed to them the tree-the means of healing.

Second, and more important still, He revealed Himself to them

in a new aspect: the Lord their Healer. That was His ultimate

objective in that experience at the Bitter Pool.

If you've faced a Bitter Pool,  or if you're facing a Bitter Pool,
  just bear in mind that:  "Your disappointment is God's appointment."

"If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God

and will do what is right in His sight, and will listen to and obey

His commandments and keep all His statues, I will put none of

the diseases upon you which I brought upon the Egyptians,

for I am the Lord Who heals you."

Exodus 15:26


"Life's Bitter Pool"
Excerpts from a teaching by
Derek Prince
(1915-2003)

 "Today With Derek Prince" Radio Program
Derek Prince Ministries
(1984)