How do you handle it when your expectations are crushed?
For four months, I’ve been commuting from our home in Yakima to the church I pastor (Moscow CLC) in Idaho. Financially, we cannot afford to move the family until our house sells…. so I drive...a…lot.
Two weeks ago, our house appeared sold! However, two days before closing…the deal fell through. We were crushed.
That night, I chose to trust in God’s intentions. I posted on Facebook: ”In the midst of a very, very trying day, I can still say that God is awesome and He is with us. Amazed by His grace…”
A friend reminded me of Habakkuk 3:17-19 “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.”
I thought about when Abraham (Genesis 22) was asked to sacrifice Isaac, God was asking him to sacrifice his expectation about how God was going to fulfill His promise.
I considered Moses and his frustration of being unable to march directly from Egypt to the Promised land as he had expected. I read how the Disciples didn’t get it (Luke 18:31-34). So focused on the way they expected things to work out, the expectations hid their understanding of God’s plan. Knowing Jesus’ power was unlimited, they expected Jesus to establish a temporary kingdom. Later, walking along a road, they were so crushed, they failed to recognize Jesus walking WITH them! Their expectations were far from His intention. Jesus is walking with YOU. How often do your expectations completely hide His hand?
In the Bible, every time people were frustrated with un-met expectations it was because they didn’t understand God’s intentions.
I am so glad HIS INTENTIONS are never as lame as OUR EXPECTATIONS.
Isaiah 55:8 says: “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine” (NLT)
- Your preference doesn’t match his plan
- Your want doesn’t match His will
- Your expectation doesn’t match His intention
- When it seems to fall apart….it’s actually falling into place
- Things rarely work out the way you think they should.
- Don’t let your expectation hide His hand
- God’s intention is never as lame as your expectation.
Advertisement
love it. Awesome. Keep it coming!!!
7 “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
-2 Corinthians 4:7,8
Something about 2 Corinthians chapters 3 and following seems to be leaping out of the page at me these days. I think the key thought and encouragement here is verse 7:
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
Blessings,
Jerry G
Well said Jerry!
Great. Thanks for the encouragement.
Such a needed real life message Pastor. Thank you. Many of us, at times, feel like we should be (deserve to be?) sheltered from the storms instead of having to live through them. Life is full of storms. It just is in a broken fallen world, just or unjust as they may be- the rain falls on both, yes?
Believers need the encouraging words of messages like this to know what to do when the storms come, because they will. We need to know how to hold on to Jesus when life hurts and fall apart in Him rather than fall away alone.
Mark 4- Jesus is with us in the storm-has also been a comfort through a long season of rain for us. I felt entitled to financial security with 7 years of college and 3 degrees. Never in my life did I expect to stand in line for food at a food bank or see everything I had worked for with those degrees slip away, powerless to stop the loss. In the midst of my crushed expectations and accompanying grief I am being refined, humbled, and ever aware of Manna Moments as I see my Savior provide when I worried so about food, clothing and shelter. Matt 6 & Matt 10 He that cares for the sparrows, cares infinitely more for us. And again I find encouragement in Jeremiah 29:11 God knows the plans He has for me, whether I know those plans or not. Trust Him indeed.
Whom Have I But You
By David Ruis
Verse 1:
Whom Have I But You
Whom Have I But You
And though the mountians fall
They fall into the sea
Verse 2:
Whom Have I But You
Whom Have I But You
And though my colored dawn
May turn to shades of gray
Verse 3:
Whom Have I But You
Whom Have I But You
Though the questions asked
May never be resoloved
Perfect for me Gary as I continue to wait on Him…
Pastor Gary, you are the most heavenly, and simultaneously down to earth person, I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. You make me want to know God … like you do.
Thanks, Gary. I needed this!