“Managing Expectations God’s Way”

When a person does pretty much the exact same thing over and over again for a very long time, soon what that person does, becomes natural and instinctive.  Meaning, they do things without really thinking about them or thinking through what they’re doing.  I believe the same also applies to a large body or group of people.  Meaning, when a body or group of people do the exact same thing for a very long time, they end up getting the same results as an individual. 

These behaviors both individually and collectively in themselves are not bad; that is, unless they interfere or replace Christ and Biblical realities.  Thus, when we as individuals, or as a body, start to manage our expectations based on what we think and feel, rather than, on what we know as God’s truth, then essentially we replace God’s realities and expectations with our own.  In truth, when expectations are managed by feelings and personal intellect, we have reduced Christ from LORD and SAVIOR to merely a “911″ God in of a God who we can have a daily, personal relationship with. 

Now, both the Old and New Testaments are filled with examples of this and over the course of my next several postings I will highlight some of these examples.  For now, I would merely like to draw your attention to John 3:17 (NIV) which simple states: Jesus did not come to condemn the world but rather, to save it.  Simply put: Jesus came to save you and I.  As simple as this sounds, during Jesus’ time (and still today) many struggle with this truth because they have different expectations.   Expectations that said, Jesus was supposed to judge rather than save.  Hence, they fell into the trap of relying on what they felt and thought, rather than the truth.  In turn, they fell into the trap that said their reality and expectations were more important than God’s.  This then only left one conclusion, the rejection of Jesus all together.

So, what are your expectations of Jesus and what are you basing them on?  More importantly, have you rejected Christ because of your thought habits and feelings?  Friends, may you know that God loves you and He sent His Son not to judge you but so He could be with you forever.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 1:38 PMand is filed under Devotional. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.