Almighty God - Why aren't you conforming to our expectations of you?

We are in the midst of asking "Why" from Reverend Adam Hamilton's book of the same name. The first question - Why do bad things happen to good people? And vice versa good things to bad people. These are very challenging and important questions to ask and enormously difficult to respond to in a way that most people would find most meaningful. There are probably just as many answers to the question as there are people in the world. Each and every one of us has responses to this according to our own life experiences and no two life experiences are the same. There is just no set pat answer. I am not going to regale you with my answer to this as it would reflect my own earth bound wisdom.

Revelation 1:8

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

 

There are some who follow Jesus because they want God to conform to their expectations instead of them conforming to His.

Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, "This is truly the Prophet who is come into the world." Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to a mountain by Himself alone. (John 6:14–15)

They expected to take Him by force and make Him the king. They perceived the Messiah as a political liberator. They didn't understand that before He will come to reign as Lord of lords and King of kings and establish His kingdom, He would first suffer and die for the sins of humanity.

Sometimes people today are that way with God. They expect the Lord to conform to their conception of Him. They expect God to conform to their expectations. They decide, and He is supposed to cooperate because He is God and is the giver of every good and perfect gift to every good and perfect person (and how many of these are out there that you know of?) It doesn't work that way. He doesn't conform to your expectations. Your expectations must conform to His. 

 

The only thing that is going to turn us around, conform us, is a change of heart, a spiritual awakening, and that can only happen through prayer and the proclamation of the gospel. We have this automatic expectation that God will prevent the bad things from darkening the doorstep of those who proclaim themselves to be good and righteous people (legends in their own minds). This is not how it works. This was never meant to be the expectation of how things work with God. God is not a partial God - He loves everyone wherever they may be, however they be, who ever they may be, when ever they may be and WHY ever they may be. What is your expectation of God for your life?

 

Knowing what we know about some people we ask Why would God love THAT person? God is LOVE.

Think of God's expectation of us along these lines. Fill in the parentheses (Your name) is love. Is your expectation to love all others the same? Are you trying to conform or transform your lives to meet God's expectation of you? Where do you fall short in 'loving all'? Why are you falling short?   

Think of Jesus' kind of love. Why did he embrace the cheaters and the prostitutes? Why did he touch the lepers and the dead? Why did he choose to eat with the worst possible sinners? Why did Jesus wash even Judas' feet knowing full well he would be betrayed by him and eventually killed? Why did he choose to put up with people who wanted to only trick him or were ever trying to push him away, or plot against his life? Why did God so love this world that He sent His only Son to die? Why did Jesus say 'YES' to the cross? Why not just avoid the whole thing and run away like His disciples did in the Garden? WHY WHY WHY -- The questions keep coming and the answers fleeting.

No sane person would ever expect any one to conform to this kind of love. Just too much to ask. I seriously doubt that even His first disciples, His legions of followers and even His own Mother would ever expect this kind of conformity to earth bound love. And we keep missing the point today. We expected Jesus to love us in the only way could understand or conform to -- by earthly standards. What we got was a living, triumphant example of God's higher expectations for man/woman kind.      
Jesus Christ is not a means to an end. He is the end. He is the all in all. He is the Alpha and the Omega. 

 

Loving God -- Loving All -- Joining the Journey. Why???

 

Come and see! Come and learn!