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All day I found myself almost subconsciously quoting that same phrase over and over again—“Those who trust the Lord will not be disappointed.” But by afternoon it was no longer subconscious. I realized something very unusual was happening. Finally, I recognized that God was giving me something important that He wanted me to hear! By this time my curiosity had come into play, and I began to search through my Bible until I found the passage from 1 Peter that I’ve quoted below, from the New American Standard Bible. At that point I was completely hooked, and I soon found myself in the middle of a full-fledged Bible search. The King James Version of 1 Peter 2:6 said, “he that believeth on him shall not be confounded,” but when I looked up that verse in Strong’s New Testament Greek Concordance I found that the word translated there as confounded also meant “ashamed” or “disappointed.” The Lord was obviously dealing with me in the area of disappointment. I would not have considered myself a person prone to disappointment. However, over the next few days the Lord began to show me that most Christians never go on to get total victory in any area, because at some point they get disappointed. And even though they may never consciously realize it, deep down most disappointments are disappointments in God, whereby a person subconsciously thinks that God didn’t come through for them. Or, that He let them down in some area. In my search through the Bible to find out what God had to say about disappointment, the first scripture to which I was led did not seem to fit the subject. “And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me.” Matthew 11:6, NASB, 1973 However, though I had always prayed not to stumble I couldn’t quite see what stumbling had to do with disappointment. So God led me next to the portion of scripture in which Peter was quoting from the prophet Isaiah: For this is contained in Scripture: “Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious cornerstone, and he who believes in him will not be disappointed.” This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “The stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone,” and, “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. 1 Peter 2:6-8 Suddenly I realized why Matthew 11:6 said what it did, and what it had to do with disappointment. First Peter 2:6-8 very plainly says, “He who believes in Him (i.e., ‘He who trusts in Him’) will not be disappointed.” And then it goes right on to say that the one who does not trust in Him will become disappointed, making the Rock [ Jesus, the Word] become a Stone (or a Rock) of stumbling. In other words, any time disappointment is allowed in we get offended with someone or some thing and we begin to stumble. It is choosing not to be disappointed that keeps us anchored in trust, and trust is the state of being that keeps us from stumbling. Trust in God takes in more than just our eternal salvation. Godly trust starts with the new birth experience when we trust Him as our Savior, but if we do not learn to trust God in every area of life we will eventually, at some point, become subconsciously disappointed in God and when that happens the Rock becomes a Rock of stumbling. In other words, the Word becomes a stumbling block. Peggy Joyce Ruth From Those Who Trust Get the Book!
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