The Discipline of Dejection

📖 “But we trusted…and beside all this, to-day is the third day…” — Luke 24:21

Disappointment has a way of creeping into our hearts when our expectations are unmet. The disciples on the road to Emmaus had all the facts about Jesus right—they had witnessed His ministry, His crucifixion, and now the mysterious disappearance of His body. But their conclusion was wrong. They thought all hope was lost. Their sorrow was not because God had failed, but because they had drawn the wrong inference from His delay.

How often do we do the same? When we expect an answer on our terms and timeline, and it doesn’t come, we slip into dejection. This reveals something deeper—our trust may have been in the outcome rather than in the Person of Christ. When we make demands of God, we exchange faith for spiritual impatience. But true trust is not fixated on the answer; it rests in the One who holds all things in His hands.

God is not absent in the silence. He is not missing in the ordinary. The risen Christ walked with the disciples, talked with them, and even explained the Scriptures to them, yet they did not recognize Him until He broke bread with them. The extraordinary is often hidden within the ordinary. We seek thunderclaps and miracles, but God is as present in the stillness of daily faithfulness as He is in the parting of the Red Sea.

The truth remains: dejection is never from Him. If we are in Christ, every need has already been met in Him. Every promise is already fulfilled in Him. If we shift our gaze from the expectation of a certain answer and instead set our hearts on Him, dejection has no place.

A Simple Reflection

• Have you ever drawn the wrong conclusion about God’s faithfulness because of an unanswered prayer?

• In what ways do you seek Christ in the quiet, ordinary moments of life?

• How can you shift from trusting in outcomes to trusting in Him?

Confident Prayer

Father, thank You that You are always present, even when my eyes fail to see. I rest in the certainty that You are working in ways beyond my understanding. I trust You—not because of what I expect You to do, but because of who You are. You have given me all I need in Christ, and in Him, there is no room for dejection. Amen.

📸 Credit to Unsplash for the photo.
📖 Credit to Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest for the insights.