Hosanna Restoration Church

Do you expect God to surprise you? Do you recognize it when He does? Do you tell about His goodness? Do you know Him as good? These are questions I have considered since God began to speak to me about this passage of scripture. I was also reminded that we are told not to be surprised when trials come and to consider it joy when they do.

Let’s start with the latter first. We are never going to rejoice in trials if we do not see that they are simply opportunities for God to show up and increase our faith! The truth is that people, Christians included, are perfectly willing to expect the worst. Some even have made it there calling in life to believe that if something bad is going to happen they will be the one it happens to. And again, sadly, this is not just people outside of Christ. Some Christians have turned it into their calling. I will leave you to think about this and move on to the goodness of God and why we would benefit from expecting Him to act like He says He will.

Peter made it clear that what God did for the crippled man should not surprise them at all. After all they watched Jesus heal every disease, so it stood to reason that if they trusted Jesus and what He said, this should be the result. Just as surely as trouble would come to attempt to steal, kill, and destroy; Jesus promised to come to heal, deliver, provide, and protect. So why won’t we just expect Him to keep His word.

We should never cease to be amazed by His goodness, but if we fail to expect it, we are no different than those who do not believe He exists. We often pray like we are buying a lottery ticket and it is at least worth a try because there is always a chance that God might do something. How many times must He prove Himself? He expects us to grow up and trust Him.

Today is the day if we will hear His voice that everything could take a radical change in our lives. Today is a day when we can choose to expect to be amazed continuously by the goodness of God. The first step is to begin looking for it. Look in your past and see what God has done. I can look to times before I knew Him and give Him praise for His mercy. I can look at times early in my walk with Him and see now what He was teaching me, and again be amazed. The more I do this, the greater my expectancy for the future.

God used the protection He has provided as I have ridden the motor cycle as an example to point this out. You see, He has done so many things from narrow escapes, to literally placing what was as a shield about me that I simply expect His protection. In fact recently He simply said, “What more do you need to convince you that I will protect you?” I am convinced! That does not mean that do not ride smart, it simply means that now I ride watching for opportunities to praise God for His protection. Now it is time for me to transfer that confidence to every other part of life. I am determined to move into an attitude of expecting to be amazed by how God answers every prayer and actually believing that He is waiting on me more than I am waiting on Him! We can trust Him. We must trust Him. Are you ready?