Expectations

Expectations.

Psalm 5:30 “In the morning, O Lord, You will hear my voice; in the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.”

When we pray, we can expect God to hear our voice. When we pray, we can expect Him to respond. We can eagerly watch for His response. But is His response always what we expect?

Isaiah 42:16, 19 “I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, and I will not leave them undone…Who is blind but my servant, or as deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, or so blind as the servant of the Lord?”

Followers of Jesus are to be blind, those who are at peace with HIM are those with blind eyes. Why would God want us: His children, aroma, and lights, in this world to have blind eyes? To not know the way that we are going?

Isaiah 43:18-19 “Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder the things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.”

Blind eyes allow us to let go of expectations, expectations that God will respond as He has in the past or in a way we perceive that He can and will. Not expectations that God will answer, but expectations in how He will answer. When we put expectations on how God will answer our prayers, provide for us, or lead us, we put Him in a box. We subconsciously limit God, and we limit our recognition of Him. If I pray for direction between options A or B, and receive none, I may feel like God hasn’t heard my prayer, or is asking me to be patient and continue to wait on Him. A season of waiting, right? Or…is there an option C, D, or even Z that I haven’t even fathomed yet, haven’t even imagined, and now am missing out on recognizing as His hand because I have limited God to A or B, or limited God to respond only to me as He has previously. 

Are my eyes blind enough to recognize when God makes a way in a wilderness, or life into a lifeless desert? Or am I so focused on the forest of perceived opportunity before me, or the hills of past provision behind me?

John 14:27, 29 “Peace I leave you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor let it be fearful…Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.”

Letting go of expectations is scary, because we don’t know what God will do, or how He will answer. But we have peace when we have His promises. He will never leave nor forsake us, He works all things together for our good, He loves us so much He sent His only Son to conquer the grave that we may know Him. Trusting in these promises, in the God who makes these promises (and more) brings peace. Allows us to close our eyes, and blindly follow. 

John 9: 39-41 “And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say ‘we see,’ your sin remains.””

Sin is limiting God. Sin is unbelief. Sin is lack of faith in the promises of God. Sin brings fear. Let us become blind to our expectations of God, blind to our expectations on how prayers should or could be answered, on possible paths that God may lead us down, on ways that God may provide for us. Our God is the God of the impossible. Why limit Him to only what we know in our finite minds to be possible?

Revelation 21:5 “Behold, I am making all things new.”

He is working even now, living and moving, redeeming and healing, creating and rejuvenating. Whether we recognize it or not, He is. Blind eyes to expectations allow us to see our God work in impossible ways, work miracles, work in ways and means that we could never fathom.

Let us be blind that we may see Jesus, the light of the world. 

May we be blind to future expectations, but have our sights set expectantly upon You.