DAILY DEVOTIONAL – December 19, 2019

“GreatER Expectations” 

Prayer:  Almighty God, the wonder of Your love and grace is beyond the farthest reach of our imagination.  How thankful we are that You are the God of all knowledge and wisdom, for if our salvation depended on the limits our own knowledge and on our own discernment, we would be lost forever.  We rejoice in the mystery of the Christ Child, Jesus our Lord, born as God and as the Son of Man that He would be the perfect sacrifice for our sins.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 2:29-32

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”

Devotional – “GreatER Expectations”

Expectations are a powerful thing.  If you look for what you expect to find hard enough, there is a very good chance you will find it.

Looking back in Scripture on the stories of Christmas, we read time and again of how God’s plan of salvation defied the expectations of everyone who was anticipating and waiting for the long-awaited Messiah.  In general, the Jewish people were expecting a royal conqueror and mighty king who would restore them to a powerful earthly kingdom.  Instead, God sent His only Son to be born as a helpless baby, and born in the most depraved conditions and who was forced to be on the run for His life as newborn in order to escape the murderous tyranny of a wicked King Herod.

Herod would have never expected a baby to threaten his powerful rule, Zechariah the priest never would have expected that he and his well-aged wife would have conceived and given birth to John the Baptist, Mary would have never expected to have become pregnant as a virgin, Joseph never expected Mary to be pregnant either, and the shepherds never would have expected heaven’s first revelation of the newborn King to be given to them.

Those who ultimately received the joy and peace of God’s free gift of salvation in the Christ child were the ones who allowed God to transform their minds and redefine their expectations.  Those who made up their own minds about who the Messiah should be and who tried to make God’s will and grace susceptible to their own expectations and desires, were deprived of experiencing the wonder of Christmas and the assurance of salvation by grace through faith alone.

Even, and especially, as Christians who know and profess Jesus as Lord and celebrate His first advent, born into a manger, we must be ever mindful of our expectations.  The season of Advent and the celebration of Christmas remind us that God works in ways that are magnificently above and beyond anything our feeble minds could imagine or expect.

Christmas is a season of anticipation and of expectation.  While we should absolutely enjoy and take full advantage of this time of year when we look back on the coming of Jesus and look forward to His second and final coming, we should also be mindful and watchful of our “onlys”.   All of us have our “onlys” don’t we?  That list of things that we feel we want or need, and that if God would “only” give them to us, then we would be able to be as faithful as we want to be and should be.

I am just as guilty as you of having those times when I think, “God if you could only do this or that for me…God if you would only answer me…God if you would only remove this hardship from my life…God if you would only…then I would have an easier time with this whole faith thing.”  In our sinfulness and flesh, we all want a faith we can fully understand, a faith we can see, a clear answer to prayer – and when we feel we need it and it doesn’t come, then we think something is wrong.  Maybe God forgot to include batteries in His gift to us, maybe God is not happy with us, or maybe we just aren’t spiritual enough.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.  God’s grace is perfect and all-sufficient for everything we could ever need and for what our hearts and minds truly desire.  As it says in Philippians 4:19-20, “And my God will fully supply your every need according to his glorious riches in the Messiah Jesus.”  It is never God’s faithfulness or character or perfect love that is lacking.  It is always our expectations that are lacking.  Our expectations that either do not in line up with the Word of God or that expect too little from the God of everlasting love and compassion who sent His Son to be born in order that He would die in our place and rise to make us the children of God by faith in Jesus.

The gift of Christ promises a new life of hope and joy, peace, blessing, satisfaction and fulfillment, all of which God wants to give us and offers to us every day.  However, if our expectations insist that God come to us and bless us only in the ways we feel we want or need or only according to the desires of our flesh, then we miss altogether the perfect gifts of God.

Who is the God of your expectations?   What is He like?  I know most of you know what the Bible says about God, but I am asking you to consider honestly in your heart, who is the God of your expectations?  Is He a miracle worker?  Is He a rich uncle?  Is He your emergency speed-dial?  Your source of spiritual empowerment?  Your group of friends?  Your routine?  Your moral commitment?  Your fire insurance?

Or is He your Daddy?  Your Abba Father?  Your only love?  Your very breathe?  Your counselor and teacher and boss and confider?  Your hero?  Your most valuable possession?  Your hope, your destiny, your purpose, your bloody Savior, an innocent babe in a manger – your Risen Lord?

You know, just as important as making sure our expectations don’t hinder our walk with God, it is important we always remember and celebrate all the good things we can expect from God; and He has promised us many wonderful things.

We can expect a Lord who is always with us, always available and who understands more than we ever will the struggles and hardships of this life – what it means to be afraid, what it means to be tempted, what it means to hurt and what it means to cry out to our Abba Father (“Daddy”).  Most importantly, we can expect to receive the faithful love and provision of our Lord in many unexpected ways because contrary to what even His own disciples expected, our Lord Jesus has overcome the world and has conquered sin, death and the Devil by rising from the dead.

Live expectantly my friends.  For just as we first gazed upon the faithfulness of God’s promised salvation lying in a manger in Bethlehem, very, very soon we will gaze upon the glory of God as Christ returns with the whole host of heaven itself to take us home forever.  As our Lord said in Matthew 24, “Stay awake!  You must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

God bless you all, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow.  Amen.