Great Expectations
As we talked about this past Sunday, what God expects from you is a reflection of what He believes about you. In Galatians 5 we discovered a “list” of things God expects and talked about how easy it is to look at these seemingly impossible “lists” of “do’s” and “don’t's” as a new standard we are measured by as Christians. But instead of reading this as a list of what God demands from us, what if we read it as what God believes about us? What if we saw these “lists” as God’s beliefs in us, his perspective on our potential and our future? What if instead you could read this as God saying to you…
I see you as capable of extraordinary love. I see you as an individual with the potential to have abundant joy, in spite of your circumstances. I see you as having the ability to astonish people with your capacity for patience. You have it in you to be a really good person. You can do it. I promise. You possess an amazingly powerful gift of faithfulness. I see glimpes of it in you all the time. And your built-in capacity to exhibit remarkable self-control would amaze even you!
If you could only see you the way I see you. You can produce these types of results in your life, if you’ll trust me. If you’ll believe in me and if you’ll believe in you. If you’ll believe in me and you’ll believe in you the way I believe in you.
And when you don’t, I won’t blow my whistle. I’ll sigh and start over again, never ceasing to believe in your great potential, cheering you on to even greater things.
So here’s my question for you today… What is one thing that according to the Bible, God expects of you and therefore believes is possible for you that you don’t see in yourself? I want to encourage you to add that one thing to the prayer we gave you Sunday and to pray it every day this week. For example, if your one thing is “patience” and you are having a very difficult time in several areas of your life being patient with your boss, spouse, kids, boyfriend/girlfriend, a friend, roommate, etc., I encourage you to pray “God help me to see and to be the type of patient person you see and believe me to be.”
Remember, whether or not you believe in God, He believes in you!
I’ll go first, mine is envy. I easily become discontent when I compare who I am and what I have to others around me.”God help me to see and to be the incredibly blessed, very content person you see and believe me to be.”
What’s your one thing? (See Gal. 5:19-23 if you need some help)
joel
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feb 18, 2010by Buckhead Church
February 18, 2010 at 2:40 pm
I was on the NPOnline Post chat on Sunday night and someone mentioned that God had to be part referee because he helped to provide correction when we did wrong.
My response to them was that God is probably more like a Coach than a ref. Coaches work with their players to correct mistakes, but above all are cheering their players on. Referee’s don’t cheer for the team…they just uphold the rules.
What do you think? Could we call God a coach?
February 18, 2010 at 9:26 pm
God, help me to see and to be the person of unshakable faithfulness you see and believe me to be. Amen
February 19, 2010 at 2:18 pm
I agree that God is not looking down on me with a frown and a whistle. But, I do believe that the picture of godly living that’s painted throughout the New Testament (much of it by Paul) is important to consider if we are really wanting to “run the race with perseverance.” It’s hard to run somewhere when we don’t have any direction or a goal in mind. It would look pretty aimless, wouldn’t it? But again, the goal is not to EARN anything. I’m a believer, a co-heir with Christ! God’s guidelines and “fruits” are given because He KNOWS us (since He CREATED us!) and KNOWS what’s best for us! These aren’t hoops to jump through, but instructions given by a Father who desires nothing but the best for us! It’s like a daddy who’s trying to get her little one to eat those green beans. Sure, that sweet little one would rather have ice cream, but a diet of ice cream and fries would lead to an unhealthy kiddo! Green beans may be harder to eat, but SO much better for her in the long run. But what 2 year old understands that? Try explaining the benefits of healthy eating to that tiny 2-year-old mind. This is where FAITH comes in. I, like that baby girl, have to TRUST that the Father DOES want what’s best for me and therefore choose to WALK in that FAITH (through obedience), even when I don’t understand completely HOW His ways are best. Again, NOT to earn His love, but BECAUSE of it!