Do you expect too much from God?

Do you expect too much from God?

That sounds like an odd question. After all, God is both all-knowing and all-powerful; He understands everything perfectly, and has limitless power to do as He pleases.

So we can expect a lot from Him.

And we do.

Perhaps too much.

Today I read part of a quote that stated, “Hurt puts holes in our faith …” The sentence is similar to how many people respond to God; it seems to justify the shrinking of our faith if God allows us to hurt. If God doesn’t perform the way I want, I will punish Him with a reduction of faith. If God allows for things to happen in my life that I don’t like or that hurt, I will trust Him less and like Him little.

We have developed in our own minds a performance standard for God, and dangle our faith as a carrot before the Lord; we’ll maintain our faith if He performs as we expect. When He fails our expectations, we punish Him by reducing our faith.

But Jesus Christ did not come to this world to soften every circumstance, to bail us out of every bad decision, to provide for our comfort, or even to heal every wound.

Why did He come?

“For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost,” Luke 19:10.

Oh, there is a bigger picture. There is coming a time when everything broken and set askew by sin will be made right. There is coming a day when Christ will reign and every knee shall bow to Him. There is coming a day when there will be no more tears, no more night, no more fears, no more pain, or hunger, or poverty, or loneliness, or hate, or strife, or sickness. No more sin!

But that isn’t today.

Mercifully — even graciously! — God is moving every day in the lives of those who are suffering such things (often in a far greater way than we could hope or imagine!). But such things will be with us until Christ returns.

Our problem is wanting them gone today so badly that we sometimes allow ourselves to think less of God for not doing what we think He should do, the way we think He should do it, when we think He should.

In spite of such a mindset, here’s a dose of truth: God’s plan is better. It’s bigger. And it’s perfect.

We would eliminate a great deal of self-created frustration if we would align our lives — our minds, hearts, desires — to God’s plan and God’s way. To fail to do so is to often harbor resentment against the God we claim to love and be in submission to.

You cannot resent God and be fully submitted to Him at the same time.

Do you expect too much from God? Where do your expectations of God come from? How does God’s “performance” affect your faith?

Scotty