Recently while reading Luke 3 the phrase “a state of expectation” just stood out to me. I began meditating on it maybe because I have felt this state, this expectation over these last months.
“Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he was the Christ.” Luke 3:15
Then Monday I received an IM (instant message) from a friend. She said, “Melissa: Sitting here thinking of you. Continue to ask, seek, and expect big things. Ephesians 3:20-21.”
I saw that word “expect” and thought back to that “state of expectation.” Was this the Lord speaking about that? Maybe, maybe just me. Either way, I began meditating on it again…expecting and expectations. Sometimes my plans, goals and dreams do not turn out as I expect or imagine they should. Sometimes it appears that things I thought may be of the Lord do not turn out at all. If a miracle doesn’t manifest itself based on my thought life or yours, does that mean there was no miracle?
Last night at Bible study we read the story of the guys on the road to Emmaus and I began thinking about the miracle they too had expected and imagined.
“And He said to them, ‘What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?'” Luke 24:17
I thought it interesting that Jesus not only questioned them about their conversation, but also mentioned the sadness in their hearts. He knew their struggle. They were very open about it too. At that point, these guys thought Jesus was just another stranger because He appeared in a form that wasn’t familiar. They were sad because all they were hoping and believing for did not turn out as they expected. They were in a place that they saw no miracle or possibility.
“But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.” Luke 24:21
Jesus was and is redeemer…however, at the moment, it didn’t look that way to them. I think that is where I find myself sometimes, no oftentimes…on that same road. Things God has promised have not turned out the way I expected in some areas just yet. Sometimes I find it hard to even see the possibilities of my miracle. Ii is then that I have to try as best as I know how to trust in the Word. The Bible seems to be full of moments where it appeared things were not going to work out.
Maybe, like these men, I have missed the Lord and His miracles as I focus on other things…the road itself, my emotions. Maybe because I expect Him to show up a certain way and at a certain time and when He does not meet my expectations or my miracle doesn’t look like what I dreamed up in my limited fantasies and thoughts I tend to start withdrawing. Then I fall into disappointment and then blindness. I can see how easily temptation, lukewarmness, the desire for other things, and sin could follow. All because I allowed my road of possibilities and miracles to be changed into a path of lost expectation in the Lord when I began limiting those same expectations.
So back to my miracle. What will it look like? Will I know it? Maybe not at first, but I have to still believe. Because I believe we aren’t so different from those in Bible times that walked that original road to Emmaus but also because I read in the scripture that my friend IMed that it is God’s desire to do above and beyond what we are asking or thinking up. I have to work not to lower my expectations to my own personal experience or to your experience or the church’s or even our world’s. If God always came through in the Bible, He will always come through for me. SO by faith I tell you… YES- I GOT MY MIRACLE even as I walk on the road to Emmaus and it is all that He imagined and so very good…PRAISE THE LORD! GLORY TO GOD!
“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to generations forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21
If anyone knows Melissa... 