E: Expectations

What do you expect? Have you ever thought about that? What do you expect from your spouse or significant other? What do you expect from your children? Your friends? Your employer? The church? Your toothpaste? We have expectations of everyone and everything. I expect when I flip the switch that the lights are going to come on. I expect that if the label says new and improved the product is going to be better. I expect the police to protect me. I expect my alarm to go off when I set it. So, if I have expectations of everyone and everything, what are my expectations of God? What are yours?

When you signed onto this spiritual journey what did you expect from God? Here’s part of what he expected from you:
-"You shall have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3
-He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8
-37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'[b] 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Matthew 22:37-39

Jesus told a story to illustrate our expectations. It’s recorded in Matthew 20. There we find the story of the owner of the landowner who hirers laborers for the vineyard. The workers who worked the longest EXPECTED to get more pay. They just didn’t get the Landowners way of doing things…no more than we get God.

In the fifth Psalm we find these words of David: In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation (vs. 3). We tell our friends that we will pray for them, but what do we expect God to do? Do we expect God to change the situation, to change them, to change us? How many times do we just toss our requests toward heaven and race out into the day, acting more like a over busy mate or a demanding teenager, never bothering to wait and hear from God?

Perhaps if we take some time to examine our expectations, we’ll find out where and perhaps why we’ve felt disappointed or distanced from God. And maybe he’ll show us how we’re doing with his expectations, too.