Expectations
As a teacher, I often discuss the importance of expectations with my students. The expectations that we have of something will often determine how we respond to it. A simple example that I often use in class relates to the evaluation of textbooks. (My students are teacher trainees.) If, for example, one of the things that we expect of a good textbook is that it should be entertaining, then the failure of a particular textbook to entertain us will very likely result in our evaluating it negatively as “ineffective”. If, however, we don’t expect a textbook to be entertaining, then the fact that a particular textbook doesn’t entertain us is probably not going to affect our judgement as to its effectiveness, one way or the other.
This makes it very important for us to examine the expectations that we have of people and things, to make sure that we have right and reasonable expectations of them.
It just occurred to me the other day that the very same applies when it comes to our walk with God. One Bible verse that is very frequently taken out of context and quoted is Matthew 7:7 – “Ask, and it will be given to you.” I find that it can be misleading, to say the least, to dangle this in front of people who are exploring the Christian faith or believers who are new in the faith.
If we expect that God will always grant us whatever we ask for in prayer, then we are going to get disappointed and disillusioned when things don’t work out that way.
Henry Blackaby sums this up very nicely:
“Some Christians say with frustration, ‘I prayed, but God didn’t hear me,’ when what they mean is, ‘God didn’t do what I told Him to do.’ But God doesn’t intend to do what you tell Him to do. Prayer isn’t designed to get God to do our will; prayer is designed so that we can stand in His presence and know what His will is, and submit to it.” (Experiencing the Cross, 2005, Multnomah Publishers, p. 164)
We have to make sure that the expectations we have of God are right and biblical. If we don’t, we run the risk of coming to a conclusion about God based on wrong expectations.
For example, some people may think that a good God must want to give us what we want, to make us happy. And thus, if they don’t get what they pray for, then they may come to the conclusion that God doesn’t exist or that God isn’t really good or that they haven’t prayed hard enough. We have to realise that God in His infinite wisdom wants us to know true and lasting joy, and the Psalmist says in Psalm 16:11 that it is in God’s presence that there is fullness of joy. Thus, God’s purpose is not to give us everything we think we want, but to draw us to Himself.
Some people may also think that a good God must surely want to remove all the problems in our lives. And thus, when prayers for problems to be removed do not seem to be answered, then faith crumbles, or they decide that God isn’t really there. But God’s plan is not to give us an easy life. His purpose is to help us grow into the likeness of His son Jesus. And Romans 5:3-4 tells us: “we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
Expectations. God expects us to focus on Him, not ourselves.
As John Piper says in his book Don’t Waste Your Life (Crossway, 2003/2009), “God calls us to pray and think and dream and plan and work not to be made much of, but to make much of him in every part of our lives” (p. 38).
In our journey towards knowing God, let’s make sure we get our expectations of God right. God does not promise an easy life. God does not promise to remove all our problems. God does not promise to give us and our families everything we think we need for a comfortable life. God does not promise that if we do good to others, we will receive good things in return from them.
God promises to give us the grace to endure problems:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
God promises that if we make Him the number one priority in our lives, always putting His glory ahead of ourselves, giving up our lives (literally or figuratively) for His sake, then we will “find life”:
“Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.’” (Matthew 16:24-25)
God promises that if we walk so closely with Him that the desires of our heart are completely aligned with the desires of His, we can ask for whatever we wish, and it will be given to us:
[Jesus said] ”If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” (John 15:7)
God loves us, and He wants us to know that He loves us. But we must remember that He is God. He alone is worthy of all praise and worship. In Him alone is true peace, joy, and satisfaction to be found. Thus, the nature of God’s love for us is this: He will do what it takes to help us see that what we truly need is Him.
.
“Love is not Christ’s making much of us or making life easy. Love is doing what he must do, at great cost to himself (and often to us), to enable us to enjoy making much of him forever” (John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life, Crossway, p. 76).
.
Photograph (by R Tang): Portobello Road Market, London
Comments Off