When Our Expectations Meet God’s Reality

Sunday Rewind is a 5-day Devotional based on the weekly sermon at Resonate Community Church

November 23rd Sermon, Day 1

Have you ever been so sure about what God was going to do, only to have Him do something completely different? Peter experienced this whiplash moment when Jesus revealed His true mission. One minute Peter was declaring Jesus as the Messiah with divine revelation, and the next he was rebuking the very Son of God he had just confessed. Peter had painted a picture in his mind of what the Messiah would look like - a conquering king who would overthrow Rome and establish an earthly kingdom. But Jesus painted a different picture entirely: one that included suffering, rejection, and death.

Sometimes our expectations of how God should work can become barriers to seeing how He actually wants to work. We create mental images of what our calling should look like, what our breakthrough should resemble, or how our prayers should be answered. But God's ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts.

The beautiful truth is that God's plans are always better than our expectations, even when they don't match what we had in mind. Peter couldn't see it then, but Jesus' way of suffering love would accomplish infinitely more than any political revolution ever could. When our expectations collide with God's reality, we have a choice: we can resist like Peter did, or we can trust that God sees what we cannot see.

Bible Verse

"From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life." - Matthew 16:21

Reflection Question

What expectations about God's plan for your life might be preventing you from seeing what He's actually trying to do?

Quote Peter had expected for Jesus to be a leader, but not that kind of leader. He expected Jesus to be a savior, but not that kind of savior. And Peter expected victory, but not victory that came through death and a cross.

Prayer

Lord, help me hold my expectations loosely and trust Your ways even when they don't match my plans. Give me the wisdom to see that Your thoughts are higher than mine, and the faith to believe that Your way is always best. Amen.