Great Expectations
(NRSV) 2 Sam 7:21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have wrought all this greatness, so that your servant may know it. 22 Therefore you are great, O LORD God; for there is no one like you, and there is no God besides you,
(NRSV)
Ps 130:5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning,
more than those who watch for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the LORD!
For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.
When I was a young girl, I read—I read a lot. And one of my most frequently read authors was Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, and of course, Great Expectations—each one a classic and each one a story of struggles to be better and to do better.
The narrative centered on a young man named Pip, whose social status and lack of education hindered him, at least he thought, from marrying the girl of his dreams and living the life he desired.
Our scriptures today do not compare Pip with David. I simply borrowed the title Dickens used to encourage us to have “great expectations’ when we pray. I was cautioned years ago that if we pray for nothing in particular, then we will receive nothing in particular. Instead, I surmised, we should enter into our prayer time with great expectations that God, the author and finisher of our faith, can do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we ask or think as Paul said in Ephesians 3:20.
David shows a pattern of behavior that we would do well to follow. First, he praises God for who He is. Then, David waits upon the Lord. Finally, David hopes in the Lord. Can you see how praising, waiting and hoping lead to expecting?
May each of us meet God every day, having great expectations in what He will do in us, and through us, and for us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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