Unmet Expectations

God with you - A Series from the Psalms

Psalm 77 

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2077&version=NIV;NLT

 

Unmet expectations! Everybody has them. It might be as small as your expectation of another driver to not cut you off. Or it could be as big as the expectations of a spouse not being fulfilled, resulting in a marriage breaking apart.

 

Whether they are the garden variety, daily living type of unmet expectation, or the earth shattering, life changing type; we all have them. The question is, how do you deal with them?

 

The psalmist had unmet expectations of God that hurt him deeply.

 

² When I was in deep trouble,
    I searched for the Lord.
All night long I prayed, with hands lifted toward heaven,
    but my soul was not comforted.            NLT

 

As a result of his unfulfilled attempts to connect with God, he asked some painful questions.

 

⁷ Has the Lord rejected me forever?
    Will he never again be kind to me?
⁸ Is his unfailing love gone forever?
    Have his promises permanently failed?
⁹ Has God forgotten to be gracious?
    Has he slammed the door on his compassion?          NLT

 

You may have asked yourself those same questions. However, the most important question to ask is, how did you respond? The psalmist reached the point of no return when something unexpected happened.

 

¹⁰ And I said, “This is my fate;
    the Most High has turned his hand against me.”
¹¹ But then I recall all you have done, O Lord;
    I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago.         NLT

 

The Psalmist goes on to recount how God miraculously brought the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, into the freedom of the Promised Land. He brought them salvation. It is the same salvation that He offers to us; that is, to leave the land of slavery to sin for the Promised Land of freedom in Jesus.

 

Unmet expectations! Have yours led you to give up hope? Or do you keep reaching out to God? For He is faithful; He loves you with unfailing love; He is with you always and at work constantly. There is none other like Him. remember His wonderful deeds.

 

 

 

 

Friday Night Football

Galatians 4:1-7

 

Previous to my Senior year of high school, my Dad took a job in Morehead, Kentucky. However, I stayed and lived with family friends so that I could finish high school with my friends. At one point in the fall, my Dad returned to complete some final details for the move. While there, he attended my high school football game on a Friday night. Normally, I didn’t play much, but I really wanted to get into the game and make him proud.

 

Finally, the coach called my name and I went in on offense. It was a running play to the opposite side of the field. The runner was probably thirty yards away from me, but I was desperate to do something, anything to impress my Dad. So I picked out an overweight lineman that was huffing and puffing, and put the hardest block on him that I could. He hit the ground with a great thud, and exhaled whatever air he had left in his lungs. To this day, I don’t know if my Dad saw me do that or not, but it was for him.

 

In Galatia, there were Judaizers, who were Jewish Christians. They believed that a number of the ceremonial practices of the Old Testament were still binding, and insisted that the Gentile believers abide by these, particularly circumcision. Paul responded in today’s passage with his attack on this belief.

 

“And that is the way it was with us before Christ came. We were slaves to Jewish laws and rituals, for we thought they could save us.  But when the right time came, the time God decided on, he sent his Son, born of a woman, born as a Jew,  to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law so that he could adopt us as his very own sons.”   Galatians 4:3-5 TLB

 

Paul knew well what it meant to try to live by the Law. In Philippians he referred to himself as, “a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless”. If you read this verse carefully, you will see that Paul defined himself according to his perceived ability to obey the Law. But in today’s passage, Paul suggests a better way for believers to define themselves.

 

“Because you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. He is the Holy Spirit. By his power we call God Abba. Abba means Father. So you aren’t a slave any longer. You are God’s child. Because you are his child, God gives you the rights of those who are his children.”      Galatians 4:6-7 NIRV

 

The Law does not define who I am. My job, my family, my church, the things that I have done, even my personality, does not define who I am. But my Heavenly Father does. I am His child, and like my earthly Dad on that fall evening years ago, I want my Heavenly Dad to be proud of me, so that someday He will say to me, “You are my son. With you I am well pleased.”

 

 

(This was actually my second devotional on the same passage. The following was my first. You decide which you like better.)