Great Expectations
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“…I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day.” (John 6:53-54, NLT)
I don’t understand God sometimes! To be honest, it’s really most of the time. Why doesn’t He clearly reveal Himself to me? Why does He often leave me guessing at who He is and what He is doing? I have these great expectations about God and what He could and should do and I get frustrated and disillusioned when I don’t see Him behaving the way I think my God should.
My husband had a cousin who found love at the age of 40 and married a man who had lost his wife to cancer. He had three children, who longed to have a mother again. They had prayed for three long years and she was their answer!
Her wedding was such an amazing celebration – so full of life and joy. But only 3 months later we were in that very same church holding her funeral. Her husband and her children were devastated! I found myself questioning God. It seemed so senseless and even cruel! How could there be any good in this?
When my son was in high school he experienced an incredible amount of loss and disappointment in a six-month period. As a result, he became disillusioned with God. I begged God to show Himself to my son, “He needs to see You and know that You love him. Will You just prove to him that you are God?” But it didn’t happen that way and my son struggled in his faith.
Why does God do that? Why doesn’t He feel compelled to meet our expectations?
After all He is God! You would think that because He wants everyone to come to Him, He would be out and about proving who He was and what He could do. So why doesn’t he do that?
As I was reading my Bible one day, I came upon a passage that echoed this struggle I was having with God. Jesus was speaking to His followers and He was explaining to them that He was the Bread of Life. Look at his controversial words, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day.” (John 6:53-54, NLT)
Really?! Who wouldn’t be confused by those words? It goes on to say that many of his disciples said, “This is hard to understand, how could anyone accept it?” (No kidding!)
Many of his followers turned their backs on Jesus that day and so He turned to his twelve disciples and asked them if they were going to leave Him too? Look at Peter’s reply, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69, NLT)
Do you see it?
Peter says, “WE BELIEVE and we KNOW you are the Holy One of God.”
I believe what Peter is saying here is that even though we don’t understand You . . . even though You aren’t meeting our expectations of what we think a Messiah should be . . . even though we can’t see the Way we will TRUST you. And I love what he says right before that statement. “Lord, to whom would we go?”
Times without number I have heard Peter’s words echoed by other followers of Jesus in times of disillusionment, “Where would we go? How could we ever walk this road without Him?” I’ve come to the conclusion that we cannot compel God to prove who He is. He will do it in His time and in His way.
His WAY is the way of faith.
So when I am disillusioned because my God is not meeting my expectations, I CHOOSE to believe, to trust that His way is good. I turn my eyes back to the cross. For how can I question His goodness, when He willing laid down His life for me?
Question: Can you choose to believe and trust God, despite your circumstances?
15 Responses to “Great Expectations”
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Lord God I pray for Connie as she faces life in pain. I pray that You would heal her to give her relief from that pain. I pray that You would continue to strengthen her trust in You no matter what life has for her. I pray that she would continue to persistently look to You for answers and direction. Meet with her there and show Yourself to her.
I also pray for Joly. Give her wisdom to know Your will for her right now. Give her patience to wait for You to reveal in Your perfect timing what You need her to know and to trust You with the parts that You don’t show her. Let her have the confidence that every moment You are speaking to her and leading her in Your way. Amen.
I’m a believer, but when I face difficult times I don’t understand, and I ask myself am I in the will of God and I have just to trust him or I’m out of his will. I want to be in God’s will and I know that he is faithful…..etc, but I don’t know what his will exactly for my life. PRAY FOR ME
when thin gs go well , would we turn to God as we do when thigs go wrong?
wqho knowas?
but i do know we get tested and parhaps my test is a life in pain . Night and day in horrible pain , but GOD IS WITH ME AND I THANK HIM
i have been ill for the past 13 years. At times the pain is umbearable , can’t take painkillers as i have auto immune hepatites i have something wrong with my spine
i have fibromyalgia
and major depression. Pain pain it is with me day and nightand sometimes i ask WHY?WHY WHY>
So blessed with your devotion Kristi. :)
Yes…i too have been effected by this devo. The last couple of days i went back over my life in 10 yr intervals and i never got through one of them without physical pain, grief, sorrow, emotional instability or ease of any kind. Every one of those years was a struggle, a conflict or a loss. i am still without any one helping me and continue to face each day without a partner. i am tired! Crying to God only makes me more upset so i’ve stopped doing it. i can’t and don’t want to figure God out any longer. i just know He is a rewarder of those who believe in His son Jesus Christ. Guess those rewards will be in eternal life where i’m concerned. This makes me sad a lot of the time yet i will never NOT love or believe there is a God and that His son died on a cross so i will have life eternal!
I no that a big part of being a christian is are questioning and asking why ? on the trials we go through in this life, that is what keeps our faith strong and brings us closer to GOD, faith is knowing without having to be shown just because HE told us through the words of the bible. We were never promised a life without adversity, adversity is what makes our relationship all the stronger with our Saviour.
Thank you to Kristi for this very special devotional this morning. Jill’s comment is exactly where I am today. I feel abandoned and alone and want to believe and trust that everything is going to be OK – God is in Control!
This is the ultimate test of faith, trusting without understanding… Having faith in the things that are unseen… It’s a mystery that is solved when and if are granted ever lasting life… We all fall short of the glory of God. To assume we are going to be granted this gift is based on our hearts and not what our minds (flesh) is thinking or what others think/or say of us. Whether our circumstances are good/bad, trust is the key.. It’s not always easy but it is always right.
Oh, yes! There have been many, many times I have been in situations where I question whether God is there. I still pray constantly despite my circumstances because I know that I am being attacked spiritually from all around me. There was a time where I was feeling helpless. I couldn’t find a job and I was in and out of relationships which I didn’t like. It sounds so simple in text but it was a profound depression that made me feel like it was harder to stay close to God.
I never want to be in that situation again! I saw dark spirits coming to me in my sleep and I was feeling very different. I chose to maintain my focus on God and to keep from allowing darkness to attack me again.
Kristi, I think all of us go through the same thoughts as you have talked about in this devotional.. today I am sitting in a book store and picked up a book called “Indescribable”. It has pictures of the solar system, stars and even the sun and moon. The authors wanted to inspire us to “see” how big God is…one thing I learnt today was this…if earth was the size of a golf ball I would be able to fit 262 TRILLION Earths inside the star Betelgeuse. WOW! can you imaginne that? So what do you think of the God you serve now????
Kristi – So often, more than I choose to acknowledge, I have the same response to God and question why He doesn’t make it easier for me to understand Him. But this morning, while reading your blog, it occurred to me that His purpose in forcing us to question Him is to strengthen our faith.
When we want to strengthen our muscles, we have to USE them & work them really hard. Doesn’t it make sense that when we want to strengthen our faith, our Father (personal trainer) would force us to exercise our faith a little harder? After a really hard physical workout, we may find ourselves in pain for a bit, but we also find ourselves to be stronger. I sincerely believe that the same can be said of our faith. After especially difficult challenges, if we have exercised our faith to get through them, our faith in our Lord is stronger.
Personally, I don’t like to exercise, but I do like the results. I think for many of us, exercising our faith is like that too.
i truly do not believe we live in Gods world. When sin entered the world, the world became satans. He is doing his best to keep us seperated from God. So we must as you say keep our eyes on Jesus.
God is God idea he answer me or not, almost time we ask God for something maybe it is not yet time for him to give us that thing that is why we have not gotten what we ask him? there was a question I ask people must time we ask God for something and yet he didn’t give us that thing does it change is person or not! And I the end of the day we see why he didn’t give us that thing we go back and tell people why we didn’t get that thing, I will never stop trusting God in any sotution that I may find myself in I no that he as a better plan for me that is why he as not yet answer me, if I can believe in God then who should I now believe in God that woke me up this morning eve when the enemy didn’t want me to wakeup this morning but his love woke me up. I love u lord.
I have just read yesterday’s and today’s devotionals back to back and both have made me draw breath. I have, for so long, been struggling and limping along in my faith, feeling frustrated that I didn’t seem to be meeting God in my circumstances, feeling abandoned and alone in a difficult and turbulent time of my life. Today I reached the point “To whom would I go?” – I realised that I either believe and live like I do or I don’t and my faith is at an end. It really is a choice and I choose to believe. I am choosing, painfully and a little fearfully, to believe and to have hope. Thank you for writing words that have spoken to me profoundly today.