Great Faithspectations 
By Ben Roberts

Scripture:
“I’ll bless you—oh, how I’ll bless you! And I’ll make sure that your children flourish—like stars in the sky! like sand on the beaches!
And your descendants will defeat their enemies. All nations on Earth will find themselves blessed through your descendants because you obeyed me.” Genesis 22:17

“So Pharaoh issued a general order to all his people: ‘Every boy that is born, drown him in the Nile...’” Exodus 1:22a

Devotional:
When do you feel closest to God? For some, it is when they are going through hardship and feel that God is standing with them. For others, it is when things are going well. It feels like God is smoothing out the path ahead of us.

I fall solidly in the latter category. My faith is solid when my daily routine is well… routine. But throw in some random chaos, and suddenly I find myself angry because the creator of the universe is not spending enough time organizing my life.

Whether it is said aloud or a quietly held expectation, most of us expect God to bless us in our everyday endeavors. The Bible is chock-full of passages about God blessing his children. Sure, there are hard times in every life. But God has his thumb on the scale in our favor.
Right?
Right!?

The problem is perspective. People see the world through a very narrow lens of time. When there is a problem, the expectation is that God will resolve the issue in a timeframe that suits our needs. But sometimes history plays out over decades or generations. God’s plan is not frustrated, but human expectations may be dashed. This theme will play out again and again in the latest sermon series, I Am.

At the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus, we find God engaging humankind in a new way. God establishes a covenant relationship with Abraham and his descendants. The covenant is summarized in Genesis 22:17. Abraham’s descendants will be as numerous as the stars, and the whole world will be blessed through them.

If I were in Abraham’s “sandals”, I would expect this covenant to at least begin to bear fruit in my lifetime. But at the beginning of Exodus, we find that four generations later, God’s covenant people are not living lives of blessing but are being oppressed, enslaved, and threatened with annihilation.

So how do we live out the promises of God? How are we to interpret day-to-day events that would seem to be at odds with God’s plan?

For me, I have to remind myself that, in spite of my perspective, it is not all about me. A bad day, week, year, decade, or generation does not frustrate God’s plan in the least. History will play out by His design. I may one day see the big picture. But it is more likely that I won’t see the big picture in my lifetime.

What I am constantly learning and relearning is how to focus on doing the next right thing and not trying to implement God’s plan on my own.

In the time of Exodus, God’s covenant people are under constant threat for an entire generation before God delivers them from Egypt. God’s people had to endure the evil schemes of Pharaoh for decades. But slowly, incrementally, God puts the pieces in place to transform a generation of slaves into the chosen people who will one day play host to God’s own Son.

It is the same in our own lives. God does not usually miraculously clear our pathway. But slowly and deliberately, He makes sure we are in the right place to play out our small role in His plan. I must make peace with the knowledge that my piece may not be the role I hope for. But it is exactly where I am supposed to be.

Prayer:
God, my mind is full of chatter. My days are often spent figuring out how to get ahead. Quiet my mind. Show me the next right step. Remind me daily not to focus on my will, but to hear the ways that my actions can be aligned with Your perfect will.