When God And Our Expectations Don't Meet

Intro

A lot of us are focused on the future right now. With everything happening in the middle east and the focus upon Israel, the rise of Islamic terrorists and their anticipation of the Muslim Messiah (the Maha-di) coming on the scene, the constant wars and rumors of more wars… It is creating a climate of fear and expectancy. Everyone is wondering what the future holds. Everyone wants to know the future. We feel our present choices and situations are dependent upon it. Man has always wanted to be able to peek into the future and know what is coming. You may have pressing choices upon you right now and not know which direction to go in, because of the possibilities up ahead.

“If I could just know what was coming, I could make the right decision!”

“Commit to this contract or hold out?”

“Should we try and have children now or wait?”

“Should I intervene now in my child’s situation, or wait and see if they can work though it on their own?”

With all the talk about rapture and WWIII, people are wondering about things like education savings, retirement, what’s going to happen to gas prices??? Our expectations and plans of today seems inextricably tied to our expectations of the future.

Regardless of whether or not “the end is near” we are told in 1 & 2 Thessalonians to continue on with our lives. But what happens when our lives are suddenly interrupted? What happens when the unexpected happens, and everything changes? You know we all have little scripts that we expect our lives to continue along. We will graduate High school, go to college, get a good job with benefits, find a great person to marry, have healthy children, see them grow up and be healthy well adjusted Christian people who will marry healthy well adjusted Christian people, etc. We have these expectations and we connect them to God in our hearts. After all we know He loves us, and wants the best for us, so it only seems logical.

But what happens when life deviates from our scripts? What happens when the plans and expectations we have of God concerning our life are suddenly radically different?

It is a horrible thing to have faith and trust in the Lord for something and then it doesn’t come to pass.

Have you ever placed your faith in the Lord, prayed and quoted all the right Scriptures, Done all the things you considered right and it still didn’t happen anyway?

“Why didn’t God come through like I thought He should?”

“Why does God seem silent and so distant when I need Him now the most?”

“Why didn’t God heal Grandma of that cancer when I prayed so hard?”

Why didn’t your child get that healing that you desperately prayed and believed for?

What happens when our reality is not changed by prayer?

The problem lies in the fact that we know God can trump our reality, but He sometimes doesn’t.

God is a God of mystery. He never moves like we think He should. He is God and we are not.

PRAY!!!

Expectations of the Now!

You ever throw a party or plan something special for someone and have it go horribly wrong? Something like you throw a surprise congratulations party for a friend because of their promotion at work, and then you find out not only did they not get the promotion but they have been laid off…

This week was the one year anniversary of the Katrina disaster along the gulf coast. We were once again exposed to the pictures of people stranded on their roofs, looters, people lying dead in the streets. New Orleans is known for being a party city. They celebrate Mardi Gras, they celebrate music and jazz, they even celebrate at funerals. But what happens when things go horribly wrong during a celebration.

In 2 Samuel 6 we see an instance of God ruining a party. David had a great plan to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem and create a grand center of worship for the Lord. It was going to be great! He invited everyone, hired a band and it was going to be a great celebration. His expectations: gratitude, blessings. Instead, because of his actions the Lord’s anger was aroused and He struck down a man named Uzza as he touched the ark.

David became disillusioned and angry about Uzza’s death.

David’s experience:

2 Samuel 6:2-12 (NIV) He and all his men set out from Baalah (or Kiriath Jearim) of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark. They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals. When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God. Then David was angry because the Lord’s wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah. David was afraid of the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?” He was not willing to take the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. Instead, he took it aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. The ark of the Lord remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and the Lord blessed him and his entire household. Now King David was told, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and everything he has, because of the ark of God.” So David went down and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David with rejoicing.