I wonder how many times our unmet expectations of what we think God WILL do or SHOULD do in a situation leads us astray. How many times did Jesus’s closest friends and family search His face for a sign, any sign, while He was being beaten that God was in control? Did they search the sky straining to see if the clouds would part yearning to hear a voice from heaven speak confirming that Jesus was the Son of God? Over and over we read that the Israelites expected their Savior to come as a traditional earthly King or Warrior, and not as a baby born to be slaughtered.
As you walk through your storm, have you expected to see a sign that God’s hand was at work and saw none? Maybe you’ve searched the scriptures or your heart or the sky looking for something, anything, to reassure you that God is with you and in control. But instead of seeing a Mighty King or Warrior rescuing you from your storm, you see only the semblance of a life you once knew that now seems unrecognizable. You expected that after the diagnosis, after the job loss, after the separation God’s loving hand would appear and restore and redeem but instead, you watched as that hand was nailed to a cross.
When we are walking through a difficult season, we expect to see God’s hand clearly at work. We watch as others share detailed examples of their personal encounters with God, or how God performed a miracle and saved the life of their loved one leaving us to wonder where He is in our storm. As believers, we believe God can do anything. So how do we marry our expectations of seeing God working in our storm when it doesn’t appear that He is?
In my experience, it comes down facing our unmet expectations. Instead of looking for evidence of God at work throughout our entire life, we focus on where we think He SHOULD be. We ASSUME that God would want to heal or save the person we love, not that He might choose to use their suffering as a catalyst to grow something in us. We assume to see God’s hand in the obvious struggle we are battling and may miss His presence in the stillness of our heart.
One thing I’ve learned both through this journey and as a Christian, God rarely moves where or how we expect Him to. Can I encourage you to lay your expectations down of HOW you expect God to move and take a step back and look, really look, at your entire life? Over 100 times in the Bible, God promises us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He IS at work, maybe just not where you assumed.