God’s Promises and our expectations

​In light of traumatic events that have occurred in my life over the past year God has been showing me some pretty intense things requiring me to grow deeper in faith in painful areas. I lost a much-loved dear son-in-law to cancer and a brother to a drug overdose. Despite vastly differing circumstances I had prayed intensely in faith for both these men to live and yet God’s answer to me was no.  

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In studying God’s Word I was once again impacted by people in the Bible who fully believed in God’s promises but didn’t receive what was promised during their lifetimes either. Yes there are many accounts of God fulfilling his promises to his kids us included giving us relief from dire health issues, dire finances, dire relationships, the list is long. Jesus came to give us abundant life and he has proven that to me over and over again. (John 10:10) But what if we didn’t receive what we were believing for? No one wants to talk about that one. We may ask “well, what then is the whole point? I am relying on God to come through for me now, not after I die. After I die, I won’t care whether I received what I was believing for.”

​There is a place we need to stop and look at this thing called life through God’s eyes and park ourselves there because through man’s eyes it doesn’t make sense. 

For me God needed to shift my earthly perspective to his perspective to be frank. We can learn a lot from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Abraham received instruction from God to leave his home and go to a place God would show him. God made staggering astounding promises to him and yet Abraham died without seeing them fulfilled. The same promises are given to Isaac and then to Jacob who later becomes Israel. Here’s the thing: None of these men saw with their physical eyes the complete fulfillment of God’s promises, yet they did not take the position of “well what then is the whole point?” You see they had God’s perspective in view.

God’s promises to them were as real to them whether they saw them fulfilled or not, and that, was what was most important. It didn’t matter to them that they didn’t get to enjoy them.

They looked at the promises fulfilled with the eyes of faith and this gave them as much joy as if they’d received them during their lives. This my dear readers, is the lens through which we need to view our no or not yet answers from God. As much as it hurts to lose loved ones we’ve desperately prayed for I know that God is bigger than death or those losses. Jesus himself proved this by dying on a cross and being raised up again. He literally destroyed the power of death.  He knows how hard we are hurting. I know that there is much I am not permitted to see and understand at this time yet Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did not see and understand how and when God would fulfill his promises either. All they knew was that God would fulfill his promises.  

And so I realized my priorities needed to be rearranged, especially how I view God fulfilling his promises to me.  He has made promises to us in his Word and he cannot lie; but how and when he chooses to fulfill them is his business, not mine. I cannot bring back those I’ve lost but that does not mean God has failed me, or he’s finished yet. Only God can make impossible expectations and dreams for the future, possible.

​At the end of the day whom or what are we going to believe in when we’re disappointed? Are we going to let go of our faith and become faithless and bitter? How tragic that would be especially when we see later that God did have an amazing plan but we threw out our faith complete with his remarkable plan for restoration. Do we really want to stay bitter? What possible happiness could poisoning our souls achieve for us? 

Or are we going to persevere knowing God hasn’t finished with us yet. Are we going to let him change our perspective on this thing called life knowing his actions are not necessarily based on our lifetime, but on his limitless knowledge from the beginning of time and to the end?  And here’s the really tough question: Are we going to let him change our priorities despite knowing that the fulfillment of our expectation may exceed our lives? Will that be enough for us?

​It has to be, because I for one do not want to miss out on seeing it fulfilled one way or the other, now or later.

The wait, will be worth it.  You’ll see.
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