Expectations

Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity?  Curse God and die!"  But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks.  Shall we indeed expect good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?"  In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Job 2: 9-10 NKJV

It seems that we christians have this expectation that part of Gods provision for His children amounts to a life of continuous, bountiful blessing.  Despite scriptural evidence to the contrary, some hold fast the belief that one of Gods main purposes is that we remain happy and blessed.  So much so, that we seem to be indignant when things do not turn out as we think they should.  Suddenly, we may find ourselves asking, "Why God?"  Why would a God whose soul purpose is the help and blessing of His people suddenly turn His back on us?  Have we done something to anger our loving God?  I would answer no to both of these questions.  I believe the issue lies not with a suddenly uncaring God, but in our unrealistic expectations.  Yes, there are plenty of scriptures to  back up the point that our Lord will indeed provide for us.  However, there is a definate difference between Gods provision and what we see as His blessings upon us.  For each day we wake, we are faced with Gods provision in our lives.  He provides for our basic health, needs and environment.  Much of what we daily take for granted is simply  God supplying our basic needs.  It is these provisions which we all too often overlook.  It seems that our expectations are for Gods provision of prosperity in our lives, anything less and we may feel that we are being slighted somehow.  I look at the story of Job to illustrate this point.  For Job was a righteous man who "Feared God and shunned evil."  How great had God blessed His servant Job?  Well, scripture tells us that Jobs fortune included seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred female donkeys.  Such were Jobs blessings that he is described as "Greatest of all the people of the east" {Job 1:3}.

"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lillies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, "What shall we eat? or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For after all these things the Gentiles seek.  For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorow, for tomorow will worry about its own things.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
Matthew 6: 25-34 NKJV

So, what is this fine line between our Lords provision and His blessing?  Why is it that He chosses to bless some while simply "Providing" for others?  This is something that is well within our Lords right.  For who are we whom God created to question Gods motives?  Has God blessed one man over another?  Is this not His perogative?  Would we have the same complaint were God bestowing His blessings upon us?  No, for it is only our arrogance which expects God to supply all of His children with unlimited blessing!  However, it is our meekness which trusts that our Lord knows that which we need.

There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.  Who are you to judge another?  Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not  know what will happen tomorow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.  Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that."  But now you boast in arrogance.  All such boasting is evil.
James 4: 12-16 NKJV

The line between our Lords blessing and provision is neither thin nor blurred.  Instead, it is our expectations of just what our heavenly Father ought to do which may need adjustment.

~Scott~