Are you expecting to encounter Jesus?
We live in a society with many expectations, the expectation to grow up, to finish school, to become self sufficient, the expectation to be good Christian and follow God’s commandments. To be honest some of these expectations are more expected than others and there are other expectations that I haven’t listed.
When it comes to our relationship with Jesus, the expectation is to Love God with our whole being and to Love our neighbour as ourselves. We may not like to think that there are expectations on our lives but the truth is we do have them and we place them on others.
The interesting question is do we expect to encounter Jesus? Before you answer, think about it a little bit. Some people confuse encountering Jesus’ handy work and miracles for meeting with Jesus. Don’t get me wrong it is important to want to see the miracles that Jesus brings, but the miracles are separate from Jesus our Lord. Encountering the miracles is comforting and easy to deal with. However, encountering our Living Saviour is life changing, profound, challenging, and humbling. Meeting with Jesus confronts our sins, our denials, our doubts and forces us to make a decision, Do we trust and obey or deny our senses more vehemently.
So what does any of this have to do with Joy? Think about it like this, if we are not expecting Jesus to be present, or to act, or to even care, we can verge on the precipice of despair. However, if we are patiently waiting to encounter Jesus because we believe we will, because we believe that Jesus does meet with us, then we are rooted in Him, and find joy and hope in Him. Do we live with the expectation of meeting with Jesus, encountering Him and Him challenging us to become more like HImself, to not just settle for our sinful status quo but to yearn to live in His Holiness and Love.
When we are expecting, we are open to seeing, and believing, to growing in life and challenged to experience life abundantly. Doesn’t this lead to the deepest joy that we can find, and it is in Jesus, the giver and redeemer of our lives.
