Passage Matthew 11: 1-11

Verse Matthew 11:3
“Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

 

 

Expectation vs Reality

 
Have you ever, after meeting someone you have heard so much about, thought “they aren’t what I was expecting at all’. When expectation is different from reality, sometimes it can leave us confused and disillusioned. This is where we find John the Baptist.
He was a prophet, who had quite the repentance ministry. Israel was anxiously awaiting the Messiah, the one who would rescue and free the nation once and for all. This Messiah would be everything a conqueror would be: charismatic and powerful, and influential and if necessary violent. John believed Jesus was that Messiah, the one they had been waiting for. But when John gets locked up and there is not a message of revolution but a message of peace and loving your enemies, John comes face to face with the fact that his expectation of what should be happening was very different from what was happening. This was not their Messiah and so he asks Jesus -‘Are you really the guy I thought you were or are we waiting for someone else? ’Did I get it wrong Jesus, because this isn’t what I thought would happen and it definitely isn’t what I want to happen.'
Have you ever been in a space like this where your expectation wasn’t the reality? Maybe you lost the job that we were depending on to pay your bills. After fighting for your marriage it still failed or the loved one you have been praying for dies. Sometimes our expectation of Jesus as our Savior is just a series of things we feel he should be doing for us. However Jesus says Blessed is the one who doesn’t stumble on account of me. Blessed is the one whose expectation of who I should be doesn’t cloud their ability to see who I Am. Blessed is the one who is willing to put aside what they think they know in order to learn a better way. Blessed is the one who is able to trust even though reality may be harder than what was expected because they know the one they follow is faithful and good.
God want to do more than just meet your expectations.
by Kalesha Peters

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