Wordy Wednesday

Some great words of advice, especially during this busy Christmas season...

Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. 

Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. 

Love each other with genuine affection, 

     and take delight in honoring each other.  

Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.  

Rejoice in our confident hope. 

Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.  

When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. 

Always be eager to practice hospitality. 

- Romans 12: 9-12

Expectations and Prayer

I recently wrote a post about Expectations.The main focus of that article was having the proper view of our expectations--a reality check. Interestingly--and I'm sure not coincidentally--I heard a couple of sermons from two different pastors talking about expectations from another perspective: Prayer.

This is an area in which the Lord has been teaching me the past few months. I have this tendency to only bring really big stuff to the Lord in prayer and try not to "bother" God with too many personal requests. Anyone else ever feel like that? I pray for others' needs while pushing my own needs off to the side. I may bring up a request every once in a while and meekly ask God if He might--when He has time--answer it? Then I would be afraid that if I ask for something too much it might come across as demanding or pushy.

So the Lord laid on my heart a few months ago that I should begin to pray fervently for a specific request I have. I should boldly and regularly ask God for an answer to this prayer request. I'll be honest...it's not easy. I suppose it has something to do with my upbringing of being trained to not "beg" for things. However, this fervent prayer is a learning process which has a purpose. 


Let me tie all of this together now: Expectations and Prayer. Acts 3:1-10 is about Peter and John healing the lame begger. This begger was blind from birth and he was carried down to the temple each day where begged for money to live. The beggar saw Peter and John and asked for money. What the lame man really needed was a pair of good legs. But, the begger kept asking for money. 

But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. 

But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of 

Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”

Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand 

and helped him up. And as he did, 

the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened.  

He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! 

Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, 

he went into the Temple with them.

All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God.  

When they realized he was the lame beggar 

they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, 

they were absolutely astounded!

Acts 3:4-10

You see, the begger had a real need but he didn't ask for what he really needed. He just kept doing what he always did--begging for money. Granted, he did need money but his real problem was his legs. It appears the begger was setting his expectations too low. The Apostles saw what his real need was.

Obviously, God doesn't need for us to ask for what we want because he already knows. Prayer is not for changing God's mind, it's for us. In my own situation, praying fervently is another way of building this faith relationship between me and God. The loving Father wants his daughter to come to Him with anything that concerns her. My expectations should be focused on God. My heavenly Father created the universe in six days so I know that no problem or request is too big--or too small--for Him to handle.

Charles Stanley once said about prayer that, "God will stir our hearts to pray when it's His will (for us to pray)." If it's not God's will for me to pray about a particular request, He will let me know. There may come a time when it's time to stop praying and do something or to lay aside that request. 

Luke 18 is the parable of the persistent widow which is a great example of prayer. And this verse from 1 Thessalonians 5:17 which says...

Pray without ceasing.

This just scratches the surface on this topic of prayer. But I rather like the idea of setting my expectations high--on God--and laying my requests before Him. I may not always get the answer I want or expect, but I can confidently ask and trust God with the outcome.

Wordy Wednesday

Genesis 17:7-8; 15-16

“I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.”



Then God said to Abraham, “Regarding Sarai, your wife—her name will no longer be Sarai. From now on her name will be Sarah. And I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless her richly, and she will become the mother of many nations. Kings of nations will be among her descendants.”


And from this covenant began a line that would one day bring forth a Savior (Matthew 1:1-2).

Expectations

We all have expectations. Charles Dickens even wrote a novel on the subject which he titled Great Expectations. That novel was about the expectations of a young boy and his hope of achieving something greater in life.

There are ordinary expectations that we all have such as, turning on a light switch and expecting that there will be light. If someone sits in a chair, there is a expectation to believe it will hold that person up. Or you might have an expectation that someone will remember your birthday. Those are all reasonable expectations. In other words, you have every reason to believe that these things will come to pass barring any unforeseen circumstance. Light bulbs occasionally burn out, chairs sometimes break, and people may forget your birthday. But, you can be pretty optimistic that all of these expectations will be met.

Then there is something called False Expectations. I did a little Internet research on this phrase to see what would come up. I found a few random definitions:

Expecting more than you will actually get. 

Unrealistic expectations.

A few examples of unrealistic or false expectations might be expecting mustard to come out of a catsup bottle, having a toddler who will never get messy, or that the Chicago Cubs might actually win a World Series. (Okay, just injecting a little good-natured humor here.) Having these types of expectations will set someone up for disappointment.

Interestingly, when I was researching this topic, I came across a curious acronym:

False Expectations About Reality = FEAR.

I haven't had time to ponder this acronym, but I suppose false expectations could indeed produce fear in addition to disappointment.

Finally, there are Unmet Expectations. In my opinion, these fall somewhere between realistic and false expectations. They are the type of expectations that are often realistic but remain unfulfilled. Examples of this type of expectation would be the hope of landing a job after months of searching, the hope of healing after an illness, or the hope of marriage or family.

From a spiritual standpoint, these false and/or unmet expectations can produce...
     storms (inner turmoil)
          faith that wavers
               doubt
                    discouragement.

This especially happens when we put all our hopes and dreams into a particular outcome, praying over something and not seeing any results. Putting all our hopes into a particular outcome like this can cause faith to waver. When we don't see the answer we are expecting, it throws us off kilter.

I like this quote from Cheri Hill, author of Waiting On God. "Our false expectations can create a storm in and of itself. When life doesn't happen just as we think it should, the winds start roaring and the storm clouds look ferocious. Our faith can begin to fail amidst the overwhelming atmosphere of doubt and despair."

There are a few problems with this type of scenario.

1. Our hopes should never be pinned on a particular outcome. Our hope should always be directed to the Lord. That doesn't mean we can't hope for or pray for something to come to pass, but ultimately we must remember God is sovereign. This is presuming that what's being hoped for is something that is not against biblical principles.
2. We must trust God with our hopes and expectations even to the point of surrendering them. This is NOT easy to do. But this is a place where God wants us to be--a place of rest and trust in Him. It's also a place where He wants to teach us and grow our faith.

I wish I could say that I have this all figured out, but the truth is I struggle with these issues. I am in good company, though. The Apostle Paul asked the Lord to remove his thorn in the flesh many times but never had that prayer answered. He did learn to accept it. David was anointed King and then had to run for his life for more than ten years. The Psalms are full of his prayers asking for God's help. After being anointed King, one would have a realistic expectation that being hunted down was not part of that plan--right?

It all seems to serve a greater purpose than we can understand. Even in the unmet expectations, God can have a purpose that we may not understand this side of heaven. That takes us back to God's sovereignty. God's able to see the whole enchilada. Whereas we can only see situations from our little microscope. We just have to continually pray and ask God to show us if our expectations are realistic, then take a deep breath and trust God with all our expectations.

Have you struggled with this issue? What has helped you?