When my car is in the shop and I borrow my wife’s car, if its half full when I take it, I bring it back with a full tank. Not because that was expected but because I love her.
Our grandson jumped out of our bed and left our bedroom, returning a few moments later with three sticks of gum from his own little package. One for Grammy, one for Pop Pop and one for himself. Not because we asked or expected it, but prompted by his love for us.
Zacchaeus, a tax collector who was much loathed by the people, was so overjoyed that Jesus cared enough about him to come to his house that he promised not only to stop cheating people but to give half of his money to the poor and pay back double what he had taken dishonestly.
On and on it goes.
When a Samaritan woman with a well-known “past” met Jesus one day, and experienced His love and acceptance, our expectation would be she would tell a few family members and friends. Instead, she went far beyond that and told the whole town.
Love will always produce more than “expectations.”
There was a story on the news last night about a restaurant owner who served an “anything you can pay” burger to the community as a gesture of goodwill during this difficult economic time. He said the average amount he received per burger was $30. It was far beyond his expectation.
The other day I wrote, “God has no expectations of us.” God made a choice to free us from expectations, that we couldn’t live up to anyway, when He sent Jesus to earth. Through His death on the cross, Jesus met God’s expectations for us. He fulfilled all God’s requirements on our behalf so we could serve Him in the new way of the Spirit, the way of love. We are now free to pursue a love relationship with God and with others that will take us far beyond what may be expected.
The apostle Paul was about to travel to Jerusalem and a prophet named Agabus took Paul’s belt and bound his own hands and feet and prophesied, that the man who owned that belt would be bound and arrested in Jerusalem. Paul’s friends wept and begged him not to go. “Then Paul answered, ‘Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus’” (Acts 21:13).
When it comes to our performance as believers, a true understanding and grasp of the grace and love of God will produce far more than what is expected of us.
Something to take just a moment to consider today.
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