God doesn’t meet our expectations.
Seriously, He doesn’t. He doesn’t do what we expect and want Him to do; He isn’t quite the way we think He should be. He just doesn’t meet our expectations.
He exceeds them.
Ephesians 3:20 says (using several versions here) that God is able to do super-abundantly and infinitely more than we dare ask or think or imagine, can accomplish things far beyond our greatest prayers and hopes and dreams. He can do much, much more than anything we think of and His power is beyond all measure.
I like the way my devotional today put it: God blows our expectations out of the water. He just completely goes above all our expectations and absolutely astonishes us.
Like He did when Jesus came to earth.
See, the Jews knew a messiah was coming. They knew that God would send someone to save them. But they were expecting more of a soldier who would lead them in fighting their enemies and would set up a kingdom (with himself as the king, of course).
Instead, they got a baby. A carpenter. A poor man. A traveling teacher. A trouble-maker who challenged their beliefs, made them uncomfortable, pointed out sin even in the priests’ lives. A threat put to death by the Romans, their enemies.
And they got a Savior. They got an opportunity to have new life, forgiveness, freedom from sin, love, a relationship with their Maker. They got the promise of never being forsaken, of living forever with Him in heaven in a mansion He’d prepared specially for them, of being strengthened and comforted and provided for by Him.
The Jews didn’t get what they wanted, didn’t have their dreams fulfilled, didn’t get the messiah they looked for. No, they got so much more–Jesus totally surpassed their hopes.
God does not worry about or try to meet our expectations. He wants to do “exceeding abundantly” above anything we would ever dare ask or imagine; He desires to fulfill our wildest dreams and go beyond that!
So why not stop attempting to squeeze God into a box, trying to get Him to do what you want? Step back. Let go of your expectations and let Him take control.
And watch in amazement as He absolutely. Blows. Your. Mind.
This seems to be a reoccurring theme in my life recently. God loves to do the “impossible”! When we think there is no way possible, God shows us He is able.
Amen! I like to imagine, when God does something we weren’t expecting or does more than we were expecting, that He laughs in delight at our astonishment and says, “Surprise, child!” 🙂