Genesis 16-17; Luke 6
Devotional Thought:
Title: “The Danger of Faulty Expectations.”
There was a man that came to me for counsel many years ago. He asked me to pray that he would get the job that he had applied for at an office downtown. Following his first interview, he called me to tell me it had gone very well and that he fully expected to get the job. He went into the next interview with renewed confidence and began to spell out his expectations for the company, how they could meet his needs, create a good working environment for his plan, and transition him into his new position. The problem came with the next phone call that thanked him for his time, but informed him that they had decided to go with another person for the job. He came back to me devastated and discouraged. My advise to him was to take a much more humble approach and next time communicate that he understood who was making the decisions and who was to make those decisions successful. Selfish people tend to create expectations that mirror their selfish agendas.
The Pharisee’s were a prime example of selfish, controlling hypocrites. These religious leaders reacted in similar manner, as my counselee, to Jesus. They had things all figured out. They knew what Messiah should be like. They knew what obedience to God meant. When they heard about a young preacher in Galilee whom many thought was the Messiah, they went to check him out. He certainly did not meet their expectations. They misunderstood who was leading and who was to be following. Their mood shifted immediately from expectation, thrill, and hope to disappointment, disbelief, and intense anger. No one who acted like Jesus could possibly be Messiah. Such an imposter threatened their religious power and their agenda. He had to be stopped. Jesus responded to the challenge in the simple way He always did. He prayed. He obeyed his Father. He healed. He taught. As the religious hierarchy issued the call for his death, Jesus continued to issue his call to faith. There is no doubt that we will face opposition as we yield ourselves to fulfilling the commands of scripture. Many of them will respond to our obedience to scripture as competition to their selfish agendas and some will become vicious and hurtful. May Jesus be our example and may we pray, obey, and trust as we faithfully serve our Savior. It will be wise for us to humble ourselves before the Lord in difficult situations and acknowledge that we understand who is making the decision to allow this into our lives and that we realize it is our job to make God’s plan successful.
Prayer Requests:
- Lord, please help me to trust you in every situation and to make your will successful by my humble obedience to your word.
- Lord, please help me to stay focused on you and to never allow my eyes to get fixed upon my own expectations and desires.
- Lord, thank you for the example that you are to follow in times of difficulty and attack.