Expectations?

One of the most self-focused views of God and what God is doing happens within our expectations.  We pray for what we desire and paint a "my will" version of what God is going to do.  We seek God's will for "my" life, rather than seeking God's will that is the perfect plan for all of us.  We read Scripture and ask what it means to "me," rather than seeking God's will and allowing God to open the very storehouses of heaven!  The box of expectations confines a big God to our small plans.

A week or so back, I went to speak to a church in Enterprise.  It was a great little church with much promise and some really good and gentle people.  I loved the spirit in that church!  But I couldn't help being reminded of a trip Lee and the family made a few years ago.  We lived in Mobile, Alabama and we decided it would be fun to go and see the Boll Weevil Monument (why, I don't know).  We hopped in the car in west Mobile and made the 3 hour trip to see the monument and the splendor of Enterprise, Alabama.  You all know what we found.  Instead of the expected imposing monument that towered over everything else in Enterprise, we drove up to see the "Muggsy Bogues" of all statues, barely taller than myself!  Oh well ... it was a good day with family and Lee got to see the place where her parents were stationed when her dad was in the Army.  Great expectations ... painted pictures ... dreams and reality colliding with a whimper!

Zephaniah prophesied in the period just before Jerusalem is sacked and the Jewish leadership is taken off to Babylon.  Arrogance, greed, false religious leaders and false prophecies of prosperity flourished.  What the people were telling themselves didn't match the warnings given by Zephaniah.  What the people wanted and the inevitable consequences of their behavior did not match.  They all want to live their lives in independence and freedom, but they are submitting to the patterns that bring slavery and, ultimately, exile.  So most of Zephaniah foretells the destruction of the people ... the result of false dreams and expectations.  But then God paints a picture of what life in God's kingdom will be like.  In Zephaniah 3:9-12 God tells them the true dream ... 1) that God will bring His people to a place of unity, 2) that God's people will worship and bring offerings acceptable to God, 3) that God will forgive and not shame the people, though they deserve it, 4) that God will not tolerate the haughty, 5) that the remnant of Israel will have a spirit of meekness and humility, 6) that the people of God who remain (after self-imposed destruction) will trust God.

So ... some questions.  How do your expectations match with the description of what the remnant of God's people will be like?  How do you feel about our worthiness of God's forgiveness?  Are we tolerant of arrogant and haughty leaders?  Do you think humility and meekness are strengths or weaknesses?  Do you trust God's plan?

In the song, I Will Listen, Twlia Paris writes ... "Could it be that He is only waiting there to see, if I will learn to love the dreams, that He has dreamed for me?"  What are you expecting from God?  Are you following your dreams and passions, or are you submitting to God's plans, doing what God dreams in Zephaniah 3:10, "my worshippers ... my scattered people, will bring Me offerings?"