Great Expectations

Though I sometimes talk about and pray about having great expectations of how God will reveal Himself during the Sunday morning worship service, this Sunday morning I realized that I've been lulled into low expectations. After "going to church" so often without seeing any real tangible, exciting revelation of Christ at work, I just come with low expectations. I'm not talking about someone speaking in tongues or falling out in the Spirit as a revealing of God's presence. Neither do I think I am looking for better entertainment. But it's the same thing week after week. Enjoy the singing, challenged by the sermons, good to hear praises, etc... but seldom anything new or exciting in the service. The greatest anticipation is whether or not someone will be playing the drums during Praise and Worship. I tend to expect and experience Jesus' presence more "outside of the church".

Probably one reason I don't see any more frequent or greater expression of God at work in our services is there are a whole lot of the congregation that are just like me - low expectations. Everyone should just put in their time Sunday morning, don't disrupt the service in any way, and the Pastors had better not get us out too late. Also, just as bad, when He does show himself I probably overlook Him or squelch the Spirit.

This Sunday, I was in my usual Sunday morning ritual - sitting in the front pew, lack of anticipation in hand, thinking about my part in the service and other church issues - when one of the Deacons brought a young girl to me. He asked me to talk to her and pray with her as she wanted to accept Jesus as her savior. My first reaction was continued low expectations (Are you sure? What makes you think she really wants to do that? She probably doesn't understand what's going on.) But as I talked to her and asked her questions, I realized she knew exactly what she was asking. This was actually going to happen - in church before the service even started! She prayed to receive Jesus and God allowed me to be part of it. I was so excited!

I'm so thankful that God will shake up my world every now and then when I get too complacent. I'm going to start expecting more during the services. Probably just as important, I'm going to look and listen closer for what He is doing. Its not always going to be in the big and obvious things. Sometimes the expressions of His love and grace may be hardly noticeable. Also, I'm going to make myself available to be part of it. Great expectations not for a great church service but of a great God.