What Are Your Expectations in Life?
It Matters. A Lot.
We all have our expectations in life, good or bad, positive or negative, happy or sad, rich or poor. And we live based on these expectations. Expectations are in fact crucial to our personal relationships. Many couples start out “in love” and their wedding ceremony is well-planned and very impressive, costing thousands of dollars and attended by family, friends and well-wishers. They travel to the Cayman islands for an amazing honeymoon, but then you find out three years later that they have divorced. What happened? Their expectations were not met.
Your friend is a Chevy guy. Why? Because the first pickup truck he bought was a Chevy and they have met his expectations ever since. Or your other friend is a Ford man because the first truck he bought was a Chevy, and he thought it was a piece of junk. It did not live up to his expectations.
We must understand the major part that expectations play in our lives. I think we could say that our expectations “rule the roost.”
So where do we “get” our expectations? What is our source? We must understand the absolute nature and importance of God teaching us through his Word and through his Holy Spirit and directing our lives according to biblical expectations that will never disappoint.
God came to them and they didn’t know it …
The people in our Luke 19 text had misguided expectations when it came to their long-awaited Messiah and the kingdom of God. Their expectations were human-based as opposed to Bible-based, so when the Son of God “visited” them they missed it.
They grumbled as Christ went about his salvation work in the life of Zacchaeus because they did not understand Christ’s true purpose for coming to Earth.
They were very fickle indeed … When it appeared that Christ was going to meet their expectations–give them what they wanted–they cheered, celebrated and hung on his every word.
But merely a week later when they saw that he was not going to deliver to them the kingdom of their dreams, then they screamed, “Crucify him, crucify him!”
Our huge lesson? It is not until we accept God’s plan and purpose over and above our expectations that we truly see and live the blessing of God, the abundant life that Christ promised.
Great Expectations – PALM SUNDAY
Luke 19