great expectations

"Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let's not let it slip through our fingers. We don't have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He's been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help. "
---{Hebrews 4:14-16 /The Message}


I once heard a pastor say that, " we go to a football game and expect to see a touchdown, to see the final minutes of clock to tick away and see some sort of big play. We go to baseball games to see grand slams or homeruns, and even basketball to see final second shots. We tend to go to many things with high expectations of what the final outcome may be....Why should church be any different?"

And why should it? Shouldn't we go to church with great joy and expectency knowing that lives are going to be changed, people set free, and long lost ones come home, and the list just doesn't end. Today we expect more to see people in church asleep in their pews, instead of people facedown before their maker. Church becomes nothing more than just a dull religous experience. It is seen as nothing more than a waste of time on Sunday. The church is seen as out of touch with the world today. Some men don't even make it because of their view of the Church. Everyone has a view. What is yours?

Expect more...believe that God is big. He can do abudantly more than we ever think or imagine.

You know, we should also have high expectations when it comes to our own personal relationships with God (Jesus). He is not out of touch with us, He has walked where we have walked in this life. When we go to God in earnest prayer, we should go believing that He can do something big. Something that blows our mind! I mean that one guy in the old testament in the bible, Elijah prayed that it would not rain for a period of time, and prayed again and the rain came...

"Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years! Then, when he prayed again, the sky sent down rain and the earth began to yield its crops."---{James 5:17-18 / NLT}

Our God is big...we should have big expectations. The bible is filled with ordinary people doing many great things. (A shepherd knocking a giant out. An old man building a large boat to prepare for the earth flood. A group of people knocking down a large city wall by just marching around it and shouting...and once again the list goes on.)

They all had this view of God. That He is big! They believed that He can do anything! He doesn't have to have all of these great materials to complete His work. All He wants is a willing and ready heart. One that has faith in God. One that has great expectations!

So as you walk with Jesus daily...think big...and when you think you are thinking big...think bigger...for our God is a big God!