Do you have a situation that people don’t expect anything good to come out of? A marriage that people don’t think can work? A child that people say is impossible? A problem that makes people write you off? Cheer up. That’s when it gets interesting for God. He is in the business of defying popular expectation, the better to glorify Himself in you.
A counselor (I’m sorry to say that it was even a Christian counselor) once said that a woman who is a victim of marital infidelity will suffer depression as a result of it for a period of time that is approximately equal to the duration of the adultery. It was proved by statistics. A woman I know decided to go with the statistics rather than the Word of God, and she rose no higher than the counselor’s expectations.
At about the same time, there was another woman whose husband died. Some of her well-meaning friends told her to expect a series of fixed psychological stages of grief, including anger at God. This woman instead chose to pick up the Bible and simply believe God’s promises. God honored her faith and defied expectations.
Sometimes we Christians don’t expect enough from God. Let us pray bold prayers, outlandish prayers, because God wants to do exceedingly abundantly more than all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20)—and certainly more than unbelievers are expecting.
Andree Seu
