Great Expectations

Expectation is a powerful thing. Our lives are ruled by it, and in fact, our lives today are a reflection of the expectations of yesterday. Most of our tears are shed over unrealized expectations and most divorces occur because of unfulfilled expectations. We measure other people not by their merits and talents, but by our own expectations of them
We are disappointed and people ask us, “What did you expect?” as if it were somehow wrong to have good or even grand expectations.
We are told, “Don’t get your hopes up! “ as if high hopes were somehow dangerous.
Hope is defined as intense earnest expectation. When we are children we have grand hopes and dreams. We can aspire to be president, doctor, fireman, astronaut and cowboy all in one day. It never occurs to us that we have no hope of accomplishing these things. They are possible simply because we believe they are.
I once sat in an evangelistic meeting where scores of people from all walks of life were turning to Christ. The preaching was solid but simple, no better than you would hear in most churches on a Sunday morning. The music was good, but not extraordinary. Later I asked the organizer of the meeting what was the difference? Why were so many people touched in such a profound way by the same things that had made no impact on them before?
‘Expectation’ was his answer. “You see, he continued, “On any given Sunday, very few come expecting anything extraordinary. Most folks “expect” it to be the same as always. Some could care even less because their attendance is from obligation or guilt.
“Here, he continued, “everyone comes expecting something to happen. They expect someone to respond to the invitation to come to Christ. Unknown to them, their expectation rises like a prayer and becomes hope. That hope energizes the hearts of men and produces the momentum necessary to make a change.
Have we lost our hope? Have our lowered expectations become the blueprint of our tepid powerless Christianity? The power to change that is within you.
Expect if you will a city whose churches work together to serve the community, whose leaders pray together, and work in unity to see the power of the Gospel released to drive back the forces of hopelessness and darkness that hold so many in prisons of bondage and despair.
Expect if you will community prayer meetings, expect if you will ministries who are willing to lay down the prejudice of doctrinal differences and seek the presence of God.
Allow your heart to imagine. Allow your expectations to turn to hope. Pray for that hope to energize the hearts of the community, and release your faith in God. Faith, we are told, is the substance of things hoped for, (earnestly, intensely expected) and the evidence of things not yet seen.
So what did you expect?