Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Great Expectations (not about the book) (08/25/11)
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TITLE: When God Doesn't Meet My Expectations | Previous Challenge Entry
By Kristi Huseby
09/01/11 -
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My husband had a cousin who finally found love at the age of 40 and married a man who had lost his wife a couple of years earlier to cancer. He had three children and they had all prayed for three long years and she was there answer. Her wedding was such an amazing celebration - so full of life and joy but only 3 months later we were in that very same church holding her funeral. Her husband and her children were devastated! And I found myself questioning God . . . How could there be any good in this?!!
When my son was in High School he experienced an incredible amount of loss and disappointment in a 6 month period. And rightly so, he became disillusioned with God. I remember praying and saying to God, “couldn’t You do something good for him, so that He can see You and know that You love him. Can’t You just prove to him that you are God.” But it didn’t happen that way and my son struggled in his faith.
Why does God do that? Why doesn’t He feel compelled to meet our expectations? After all He is God! You would think that because He wants everyone to come to Him, He would be out and about proving who He was and what He could do. So why doesn’t he do that?
As I was reading my Bible one day, I came upon a passage that echoed this struggle I was having with God.
Jesus was speaking to His followers and He was explaining to them that He was the Bread of Life, look at his controversial words, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day.” John 6:53-54 (NLV) (Really! Who wouldn’t be confused by those words?)
It goes on to say that many of his disciples said, “This was hard to understand (no kidding!) and how could anyone accept it?” Many of his disciples left that day and Jesus turned to his 12 disciples and asked them if they were going to leave Him too?
Look at Peter’s reply, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:68-69 NLV)
Do you see it? Peter says, “WE BELIEVE and we KNOW you are the Holy One of God.”
I believe what Peter is saying here is that even though we don’t understand You . . . even though You aren’t meeting our expectations of what we think a Messiah should be . . . even though we can’t see the Way we will TRUST you.
And I love what he says right before that statement. “Lord, to whom would we go?”
Times without number I have heard Peter’s word echoed by other followers of Jesus in times of disillusionment, “Where would we go? I would never have been able to walk this road without Him!”
I’ve come to the conclusion that we cannot compel God to prove who He is. He will do it in His time and in His way.
Remember, he demonstrated His great love for us through the death of His only Son on the cross and He calls us to trust that what He says in His Word is true.
The question is, “Do I believe it?”
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You had a few punctuation errors (missing commas or not capitalizing inside a quote if it's a new sentence). But those are little things.
Your writing is good and the message fantastic. I always say we can't understand God because we have a human brain not a God brain.