Jesus Exceeding Our Exoectations

It was all too familiar.

Here she was walking the stony rugged path outside the city gate once again. A familiarity she never wanted, never asked for but yet she was retracing those same steps that she had taken before. A trip that seemed to had only been yesterday.

Just like the last time she kept her eyes averted to the ground. She could sense all the people around her but at the same time felt completely alone. She could barely even hear the professional mourners over the cries of her heart.

“What now?” “How could this have happened?”  “What will I do to survive?” Questions coming one after another, invading her thoughts as she tried desperately to keep her knees from buckling.

With tears spilling down her cheeks faster than she could wipe them away with a cloth that lost its dryness days ago, she tried to focus on the shoulders of the men walking in front of her.  In fact, there were two columns of men walking together, side by side. These men were carefully placing their steps as to not mishandle the precious cargo atop their shoulders.  Each sharing the weight of the poles that made up the stretcher like coffin upon which the shrouded body of her son-her only son lay. Not only was this her dearly loved son but since her husband had died he was her protector and her provider. Now he too was gone.

The further outside the city she went the more numb she became. She barely noticed the group walking towards the gate about to pass her.  The cultural traditions held that when one passes a funeral procession condolences were to be made. This would be no different. For a moment she was able to pull herself out of the dense fog within her head.  She could tell there was a buzz of excitement within the oncoming group.  

What it was she didn’t know and frankly she didn’t care. 

Her world had stopped and that was all she really knew.

Once the group was close enough she lifted her eyes just barely to see the man walking ahead of the rest. There was something different about him. He wasn’t like the other mourners. As her eyes met his briefly she could tell he held true compassion for her. He came close and whispered to her, “Do not weep?”  Then he did the most unusual thing. He reached for the stretcher carrying her son’s body. The small amount of air that was left in her fragile body leapt out in a gasp. If this man touched the body he would be deemed unclean. “Why would he do that?” she asked herself.

As the man touched the side of the open air coffin, those carrying it stood still. She couldn’t help but draw close. She had to know what was happening.  It was almost like everything around her hushed and then she heard the strangest words coming from the man. Her head began spinning. “Did he just say what I thought he said? Did he just say, “Young man, I say to you rise?”

She stared at the man for what seemed forever then slowly turned and looked at where the body of her son lay. “What was she seeing? Was she dreaming?  Was that her son was sitting up and talking?” At that moment she could no longer keep her knees under her.

More questions bombarded her. “In her stumble, had she fallen asleep? Was this a strange dream? Was this man she kept hearing others call Jesus really standing in front of her? Who was that he has his arm around? Is that really her son?”

She reached timidly out to the hand beckoning for hers and when they met…when real live flesh met tears and laughter burst from her.  It was her son. He was truly alive.

The widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17) only expected the obvious that day.  She expected to follow a procession to the cemetery. She expected to bury her son into the cold ground. She expected to walk that lonely path back through the gates of the city to her house. She expected life to be hard and sad from that point on.

But what she didn’t expect…she didn’t expect Jesus.

Jesus walked up and exceeded her expectations.

Friend you may not be walking in a literal funeral procession but you might be like I am, standing on a stony path watching that dream encased in a bubble wafting away on the slightest breeze.  Maybe you also feel like I have, like you are standing drenched in a muddy puddle from the wave that doused the passion that once burned like a raging fire in your heart.

Maybe your only expectations are to bury those dreams and passions in the cold earth with life never being the same again.

 Maybe you are not sure what to expect.

God has me on the journey of expectation. He is telling me not to be walking down a stony path with limited expectations.

 I have felt God ask me “Are you expecting Jesus?”

God is tugging at my heart to expect the arrival of Jesus and to be ready for him to reach out and touch that which I once thought was dead and rejoice when He exceeds my expectations.

Psalm 145:19 says, “He will fulfill the desires of those who reverently and worshipfully fear Him.”

Oh friend, expectantly wait for His arrival and don’t be surprised when what He does totally exceeds your expectations.

Edwin Louis Cole says, “Expectancy is the atmosphere of miracles.”

I can’t wait, can you?

A Cord Of Attachment

There she stood gazing at the window, not really looking out but just at the frame that made up the hole in the wall where the two men recently descended from her home.  

Clutching to the line of scarlet cord that one of the men placed in her hands with specific instructions, Rahab finally found what she was looking for, a place to secure the cord in hopes of rescue when the Israelites returned.

In the Book of Joshua chapter 2 we find the story of Rahab and the Israelite spies and this is where we find the most interesting Hebrew word for expect.  The word Tiqvah (Strongs 8615 pronounced tik-vaw’) which means something yearned for, to anticipate eagerly, something for which one waits.  This word comes from the verb qavah which means to look hopefully in a particular direction. The original meaning was to stretch like a rope.

So here in the story of Rahab we find in her hands a cord of expectation and hope.

In Joshua chapter 2 verse 18 is states: “thou shalt bind this line (hope, expectation) of scarlet thread (cord) in the window which you let us down…”

Then in verse 21 we read, “she bound the scarlet cord (the tiqvah- a line of hope in expectation of salvation) to the window.”

Rahab had already told the spies she knew who the Lord was and what He had done for their people. Now she was tying a scarlet cord to her window waiting and longing for the Lord to send the men to rescue her in His time.  She was ready and looking for their rescue of her and her family. Even at the same time, she was longingly and expectantly looking in the direction of the One who would be her real salvation. 

For I had a feeling she was a little like Psalmist in Psalm 121, “I will lift my eye to the hills where does my help come from? My help comes for the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.”

Don’t you simply love the symbolism in the Bible? The cord was not only a symbol of her expectation of immediate rescue but also of the rescue from sin by the Savior Jesus Christ.

Maybe you are in a situation where you need refocus and to get to the place of expectation.  

Maybe you need to find your own tiqvah, a cord to tie with expectation.

Oh my friend, you may feel as though you are surrounded by heart melting circumstances just as the people of Jericho when the Israelites marched across the desert towards them (Joshua 2:11) but when you step out in faith like Rahab and tie on to God’s hope expecting Him in His way you will always find Him faithful.

Father, teach us to attach ourselves to you with a cord of expectation.  Let us see your faithfulness even when we have fear surrounding us and we need your rescue.

Living to Expect

Have you ever had a common word, a word you have heard more times than you can count,  all the sudden make you sit up straight and listen?  A word that once you look more closely at makes your eyes grow wide and your lips part as you realize your chin is dropping to the ground?  A word that just might have become a game changer in the way you look at it ever again?

For me this happened recently with the word EXPECT.  As the end of 2014 drew to a close I was struggling with life situations.  I was at a quandary as to how I was to proceed with 2015 regarding a passion and purpose.  Frankly things just seemed ho hum and I didn't know how or where to place my next step so I began praying for God to show me a word to study or something that would direct me or even restore a passionate life.

Not knowing where to really begin I grabbed my Bible…OK I know that is where you always begin but I didn't know how to “hear” which word God had for me.  I turned to the concordance in the back and started reading aloud the words found there.  Starting in the A’s I would read a word then jotted it down and thinking halfheartedly, “Well I could do this one.” 

Page after page, I sat jotting down words that were safe in my mind.  Sitting at my kitchen table I was combing through the alphabet…A…B…C and so on until I reached the end of E.  The word Expect struck a chord.  I tried to flip the page and go on to F but it was like God wouldn't let me pass that word.  I know then that God’s word for me was EXPECT. 

Expect: a verb meaning to look forward to; regard as likely to happen; anticipate the occurrence or the coming of.

I know what you might be thinking here…”Um… Cynthia, this is no news alert. We know that definition.”  I agree!  I knew that meaning as well but what I didn't know was the Hebrew and Greek meanings of the words that were translated into English as expect.

When reading the original meanings of the word I sensed a deeper pulling of the words. Within the definitions came the gripping words of hope, intense anticipation, apprehension, earnest expectation, wait, that thing I long for and looking hopefully in a particular direction.  But the one that struck me odd until I dug further was “a cord as an attachment.”  Where in the world did that come from and how did it fit?

Over the next few weeks we will look at this word expect. Digging in and hoping to find more of a reason to expect.

Are you expecting something?  

Have you given up expecting something from God?

Edwin Louis Cole says, “Expectancy is the atmosphere of miracles.”

Father, I pray that you will teach us to expect you more, to place all our hope quietly before you.  For everything that we long for is in you, O God, alone.

Great Expectations

The year of 2011 was an interesting year for us to say the least.  My family experienced joyful times, quiet times, trying times, times of sorrow and heartache. We walked a road that we never thought we would traverse and since have been learning how to heal.

Several years ago, God led me through a time teaching me trust.  Not in trusting myself or others but trusting in Him alone. Trust is that reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety of a person or thing.  He was leading me to have confidence in Him and put my reliance on Him.   Oh how frustrated I got when that topic was always being taught or talked about.  I did not want to hear those words again and even wanted to avoid a conference for women because I “knew” the topic would be on that word.  In my mind I threatened to throw marshmallows at the speaker if she brought it up.  Yes she did and no, I didn’t but I did giggle when it happened.

Surely I had trusting God down since I had given my heart to him.  Surely I did, right?  Not so much.  God knew what was coming my way and knew I had to fully trust Him to carry me through.  I would not be able to rely on family, friends, or other Christian acquaintances to scoop me up and carry me across the valley. Oh I wanted them too! I looked for them too! I even wrongly, expected them too! I placed a burden on their shoulders without even letting them know.  I got confused, hurt and even got to the point of understanding why people walk away from the local fellowship of the church.  I realized how much we can hurt each other more deeply when we don’t fully understand what has taken place. Through this experience I am learning even more what it means to encourage those that are hurting and not push them down further but instead walk with them on this journey to freedom.

At the beginning of 2011, God placed a verse before me to memorize.  I never knew how many times throughout the year I would recall Psalms 65:11 “You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.”  Through this trying year I learned to rest on God’s integrity, His Strength and His ability.  I can look back on the paths we walked in 2011 and although I remember the pain of each step I can now see the overflow of abundance.  Without my feet sounding like a thud on those hardened pathways some of the great things that are occurring now might have been slower in happening or might not have happened at all.  With God’s grace and peace I can now be thankful for the paths we walked this past year.

Now as I look forward to 2012 I don’t have a clue what paths I will walk down but I do it expectantly.

 Just today I read 1 Peter 1:3-9:

 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.

You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.

I guess the part that really caught my eye was “now we live with great expectation.”  What a way to look at the calendar of 2012!  With great expectations!

According to Dictionary.com, Expectations is the act or state of looking forward or anticipating.

Excitedly I began to think about what I might be expecting in this new year and came up with a list. So here are a few of my expectations.

To live unclenched. (I’ll explain this in another post)

To let joy overflow.

To get my fingers and toes dirty by digging into the WORD more.

To follow a dream that I have let slip by the wayside.

To live up to my inheritance.

2011 almost zapped me but I am determined to not look back over that year with heartache but rather to glance back and see the overflowing abundance that God gave to me.  Now I know that I can be truly glad for there is wonderful joy ahead and it is more precious that gold.

 So what are you looking forward to, anticipating in 2012?

Out of the Shadows,

Cynthia