Doug Creamer: Expecting
Published 12:00 am Saturday, April 29, 2017
Last weekend began like most weekends. It felt good to have the workweek behind me and I was thinking about all the things I wanted to get done. I got a good night’s sleep and started to knock things off my list. I was enjoying the beautiful weather but somewhere lurking in the back of my mind was the nagging feeling that I better reorganize my list of things to do.
The problem stemmed from the forecast, which was calling for heavy rain. Saturday’s beautiful sunshine was going to lead to a rainy Sunday. Being the weather fanatic that I am, it looked to me like a few inches of rain was possible. There were some outside and inside tasks that I wanted to accomplish. The forecast was pushing me to get that outside work done first.
I had a pile of dirt that needed to be moved into the raised garden beds. Wet dirt would be back-breaking to move. When I finished I thought I could start tackling the inside jobs. I was about to go inside when I saw the gutters. With a heavy rain on the way, maybe I needed to check to be sure they could handle what was coming.
I grabbed the ladder, thinking it would only take a few minutes to check around the downspouts. When I peered over the edge I couldn’t believe how full of gumballs my gutters were. The big sweetgum tree had filled my gutters and I had a big job ahead if I wanted to beat that rain I was expecting.
When you think about it, we allow expectations to drive our behavior. We are expecting a snowstorm so we all run out and buy bread and milk. We are expecting family to visit for several days so we clean the house and buy some extra groceries.
We can expect changes in the weather. We can expect things to change as we grow older. The question that is floating around in my mind is do we live our spiritual lives with any sense of expectancy? Do we really believe that God exists and that He wants to interact with us on a daily basis? Do we expect God to hear our prayers and then to actually do something about them?
I was thinking about Simeon. He was expecting the Messiah and had received a promise from God that he would see him before he passed away. I imagine every day he was looking out at the people watching and waiting for God to point out the one he expected to see. Do we live our lives with expectancy, expecting God to move and act on our prayers?
I think about the disciples waiting or maybe hiding in the upper room. Jesus instructed them to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from on high. Do you think there was a sense of expectancy among the believers as they waited? Do you think they even understood what a difference the power of the Holy Spirit would make in their lives?
Living our lives with a strong sense of expectancy that God cares and that He wants to be involved in our day-to-day experiences might change the way we live our lives. If we believe that God listens and really does answer our prayers, then we might live expecting Him to move at our heart’s cry. If we could live our lives knowing that God deeply loves us then we could raise our faith to a level of expecting Him to be intimately involved in every aspect of our lives.
I also believe if we could stir our faith enough to believe that God cares about us, then we could expect God to hear and answer our prayers for others. I believe when we can expect God to heal others, we will see the miraculous. I believe when we can pray with expectant hearts that we will see our lost friends and loved ones come home to the Lord. I believe when we can stir our faith in a God who is bigger than drugs and alcohol that we can expect to see people set free from addiction.
I want to encourage you to raise your level of expectancy in a God who is bigger than any circumstances. I believe in a God of the impossible who can do far more than I can imagine. I think we all need to stir up our faith in God. We need to expect that God wants to be involved in whatever we are facing…nothing is too big for God. I am raising my level of faith and believing that whatever you are facing God will intervene for you.
Contact Doug at doug@dougcreamer.com
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