« Not Bread Alone, but Every Word | Main | Abe Lincoln’s 200th Birthday »
How to See God Work in Your Life: Live Expectantly
By Julie | February 11, 2009
For the past couple months a theme keeps repeating in my life: Live expectantly and you will see God work in your life. It was the topic of a sermon at church around Christmas time. It has come up in several sermons I’ve heard on Bott Radio. Different people in my life have said essentially the same thing in conversations… “Well, Julie, God could be at work in all those areas. Maybe you don’t see it, because you don’t expect it.” It’s come up so many times that I was a little freaked out at first, how had all these unconnected sources conspired to tell me the same thing? Then it hit me, if these unrelated people are telling me this, there is one thing connecting them: God. Since it must be something God is communicating to me, through tons of different outlets. After all, God knows I’m dense sometimes and need constant reminders.
The sermon at church said that we need to live like pregnant women, because a pregnant women lives expecting that at the end of their pregnancy and labor, they will hold a baby in their arms. This analogy really struck home with me, after all, I am 38 weeks pregnant right now.
But another verse has come to mind about living expectantly as well:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. – James 1:2-4
I realized the same goal God has for us in these verses from James he also has for the babies he grows in each woman’s womb. To the mother carrying the child it can feel like they face trials of many kinds: morning sickness, back aches, leg cramps, breathing difficulties, gestational diabetes, over eating, under eating, heartburn, and emotional swings that make a bipolar person look tame. All that happens before the painful process called “labor.” But what is the point, the purpose of all this “suffering” a woman goes through? To make the mother complete for parenting the child. And to make the fetus into a mature baby, capable of life outside the womb. Unfortunately, we know what happens to the child who arrives incomplete, the one that lacks: a mature lung, enough fat to sustain it’s temperature, or even, the one who never had a chance to develop his organs. That baby will live in an incubator not able to be held, possibly even die.
So, it is this completeness that a pregnant woman expects, and looks forward to in her pregnancy. Because we would never want the alternative for our offspring.
It’s the same for God. Our trails are designed to mature us, to be a fully formed person, physically and spiritually. God wants us to be able to live in a world on our own, but connected to Him. He does not wish for others to have to care for our every need, He wants to do that. He does not wish for us to go through life so damaged we cannot connect with him, or any other human. And he certainly does not want our lives to be so broken that we have no other option but death.
But in order to see the fingerprints of God working in our lives, we have to expect Him. We have to make the decision to quit relying on ourselves and start relying on God. Then life can get a little uncertain, and sometimes it seems unstable. But when I have really seen God work in my life, it’s the times when I’ve let him take control. I didn’t know when or how my trials would end. But I knew they would end, even if I had to go through something painful to get me there. After all, labor does hurt, but when the baby is placed in your arms, perfect and crying and complete and ready to rely of you, it makes the trial that brought the baby to you so very worth it.
Topics: Encouragement, Faith | 1 Comment »
May 22nd, 2010 at 2:36 pm
This was an awsome discription of how we should rely on God. You couldn’t have said it any better. I think god was speaking through you when you wrote this. It has helped me to better understand what is going on in my own life. Thank you