Strange question for a tuesday morning, I know, but just think about it. Are you? No, not a baby, but are you expecting your life to be different because you trust God? Are you expecting God to be working when you pray? Are you expecting your life in faith to grow? Or are you too busy trying to do it on your own that you don't expect much?
I'm afraid that too often we come to prayer without expectations of an answer. We hope things will be different, but how often do we expect them to be? The same is true of our spiritual life. Sometimes we think we fail in prayer, in study, in reading the scriptures or understanding them. Then we feel bad about our apparent failure and give up way too soon. Many believe that God wants us to reach a certain level on our own, then we can begin expecting. But that's wrong thinking!
Growing in faith, in expectation of what God is going to do in our lives next is simple, Trust God! That's right, trust God. It's that simple. I'm not talking about simply giving God the remote and sitting back and enjoying the show, but to trust the very present God with us and in us. God has taken up residence in us and to trust his presence, his guidance, his life giving power, his very life is to experience the Christ-life. The very power that was at work in Jesus is at work in us!
I love how Paul put it when he wrote to the church at Rome, "This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike 'What's next, Papa?'" (Romans 8:15, The Message)
Okay, so I know that we are just a week past Christmas and I bring up resurrection. That's Easter! But when we celebrate Christmas we are not just celebrating Christ's birth, but the whole Good News that he is. He is with us. He is working in us. And he's definitely not through with us just yet.
Today, no matter what happens to us we can be sure of this, that God is at work in us and great things are not only possible but likely! Expect them!
Peace><>
PC
4 comments:
I have found even a small amount of faith can go a long way not by reading the mustard seed parable, but rather simple recognition of who we are and what we believe.
We should find comfort that we have heard the "Good News" and not only believed it, but accepted it. In Matthew 13:16, it says: "But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear."
Some may live out their lives on earth and never encounter or accept what we as christians have.
Wherever a christian is at in their life they can look back and know they heard the word of God and embraced it, and if need be, pick up where they fell off. If we take heart in that we will be expecting a lot.
Expectations can and will go both ways. Sometimes regardless of what we might be expecting...
God CAN and WILL move mountains in our lives and sometimes God CAN and WILL leave the mountain in front of us and simply and lovingly guides us through the uphill climb. Either way, if we trust in him we will see that if he moves the mountain..what new, vast open spaces open up before us and if he simply helps us up the mountain the view from the top is breathtaking. We can expect that God is doing great things through us if we only let him work. Trust and obey...and expect nothing less than the best from God. His plans for us turn out so much better than we could ever have conceived ourselves!
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