What Are You Expecting?

There is a simple yet profound question which lies beneath most of American culture, "What's in it for me?" When we get a new work assignment we wonder what we will gain. If someone asks for our help somewhere in our minds comes the thought of what we might gain. Whether in direct and grand ways or in small subtle ways this has crept into most of our lives. Unfortunately this has happened with our journey with God. As we consider walking with God, and ways in which God calls us to follow we can often slip into a mindset which asks, "What is in it for me?"

This question first shows our very need for God, and we enter in to relationships thinking about what we can gain. It also highlights the fact the we are so prone to missing the point. There are amazing benefits to following God through Jesus Christ. The benefits are more numerous than I can list on this page, yet is that why we follow? It seems as though if we follow God for what we get in return we are simply in another consumer transaction. Our struggle is made deeper when God does not deliver like we thing God should. We feel like we have done our part and God seems to fall short on His part. Somehow we feel like we have been short changed by God.

This all comes back to one issue, the Lordship of God in our lives. On the day when God gave up his only son that we might have life it was not lets make a deal day. God did not say if I sacrifice my only son will you follow me? If you follow me, I will make your life all that you want it to be. it may seem absurd to even think about that, yet that is often how we live. We expect God to function the way we want God to function because we think we are in charge. Very easily we slip into the thinking that I have paid my dues to God now it is time for God to deliver the goods and services on my terms. Problem, we are not in charge. God is King, Jesus is Lord, that means God is in charge not us. If we are following God expecting certain returns we often will find ourselves disappointed. The only expectation we can have in following God is relationship. Because of Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection, we can have relationship with God. Not simply relationship but a relationship where nothing stands between us and God. We are not in charge of how that relationship works as we are the created and we respond to the creator.

What are you expecting from God? Are you following God expecting to get something in return? Are you obedient to the call of God expecting God to function in specific way that is to your liking and pleasure? Perhaps it is time for all of us to offer our lives broken and incomplete to God with our any expectations of what is in it for me.