Waiting With Expectancy Not Expectation

I want to start by thanking everyone for the prayers that you have lifted up in the last couple of days. I am doing much better. My toe is healing quickly. I hope to be able to walk on it by the end of the week. I get my stitches removed on Friday and hope I will be able to walk out of the hospital after that. That is my goal. The last couple of days have been very laid back and rather boring. But I have had the opportunity to rest and relax in God´s presence nonstop. I have spent a lot of time reading and pondering on God´s word. I have absolutely enjoyed it. I have enjoyed the feeling that I am hanging out with Jesus all day. It saddens me that soon I will be back into a normal life of on the go, and can´t just sit down anytime I want and read His word without cease. That has been my favorite part about this whole incident that has been turned into a very intimate week with my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The thought of this ending was not something I wanted to think about. Then God asked me, "Who says it has to stop?" This stopped me a second. The question was deeper then the actual surface of the question. I began to ponder. During this pondering time I was listening to my ipod and a new song that I bought yesterday was playing. It is a song sung from God´s perspective speaking to a man. The song goes through a day from sunrise to sunset where God tries to talk to the man, but the man is too busy to talk back, or better yet, he is too busy to simply listen. It shows the image of many many Christians who are just a little too busy for Christ right now. I want to extend this song for a second if possible. Let´s imagine this man at the end of the week. Let´s imagine him on a Sunday morning. This is a good Christian man who isn´t of the world, but just lives in it. This a man who lives by what the Bible teaches as far as actions go. He is a man who is respected by others in the church. He is a man who truly desires to be with God and wants God to speak to him, but he is just a little too busy most of the time. He loves Sundays so much because that is the day he gets to give all day to God. He loves worship and looks forward to going. He goes into worship hungry and longing to be fed by God. To be fed by his love and mercy. Often times though, he walks out of church still hungry. The man can never figure out why. He desires so badly for God to come and be with him, but can´t figure out why He doesn´t.

I want to take this man´s live and apply to our lives. This a Christian man who longs to be near God. He longs for God to come and be with him but it seems as though God is staying at a distance. For some reason the man just can´t seem to invoke the presence of God. Psalm 139:7-10 says this:

Where can I go from your spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If if go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

According to this passage of scripture, we see that God is everywhere we go. There is nothing we can do to get away from Him. He is with you right now as you are reading this. He is with you when you are driving. He is with you in every shadow and step that you take. He there giving you every breathe that you take. So invoking the presence of God is not necessary. Then why don´t I feel Him near me? God does not need to be invoked, we do. We need to be called to our senses, to be as present to God as God is to us. God is near. The man, who is just a little too busy and can only find time to worship on Sunday, will starve and never see Christ infront of him. Kind of like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who did not recognize Jesus right infront of them talking to them. This brings me to the title of this blog. Waiting with expectancy not expectation. Expectancy is the belief that God will do something. Expectation insists He do it in just this way. Sometimes expectation blinds us more to the God who is here right now than outright disbelief does (Mark Buchanan) The two disciples didn´t see Jesus because, "We had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel" (Luke 24:21). That "hope" took a form that shut out suprises, like crosses and resurrection and a deeper redemption. Living a life of expectation leaves us often times disappointed because we are expecting it our way and don´t open our eyes to God´s way. If we wait with expectancy then we have our eyes open to all options. We invoke our presence toward God. We open our eyes and see Jesus in everything. We see that He is in everything we do. He is at our home. He is at the hospital with you. He is at your job. How different our lives would be if we instead made work into worship: as working for the Lord, not for man. And what if we did this, too, with our play, our leisure, our family time, our garden chores? Imagine. Imagine a life anchored by expectancy, by the conviction that the Lord will show Himself. How, where, when; we don´t know. If I were to live a life like this, then at the end of the week, when my foot is able to be walked on, I won´t have to miss the ability to hang out with God all the time. I won´t have to find a time to fit Him on my busy calendar. I will make Him my calendar and put everything else on top of it. I will worship Him in everything I do. Do everything for Him, not for man. Sit in class and learn Portuguese with Him right there beside me. I can rejoice and worship Him with every breathe I take. If Sunday for one hour is the only time we worship, no wonder we do it sloppily, hastily, and leave as hungry as we came. If we only ate one day a week, and on that day only one meal, we would die soon enough. And man does not live on bread alone. Robust worshipers worship in spirit and in truth. They don´t need a temple. A classroom will do. Invoke yourself to God´s presence which is right infront of you. Wait with expectancy for God to show up in your life however He wants. Find Him in everything in your life. Start by making this your prayer:

God be in my head,

and in my understanding;

God be in my eyes,

and in my looking;

God be in my mouth,

and in my speaking;

God be in my heart,

and in my feeling;

God be at my death,

and at my departing.

I get to hang out with Jesus all the time. It doesn´t get any better.