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What are you expecting during this Advent season? Maybe your inner child still shakes the gifts under the tree with an eager expectation for the surprise you will discover on Christmas morning. The Christmas narrative is filled with people who were looking expectantly. Shepherds gazing up to a glory-filled sky. Wise men looking to a brilliant Star to guide them to a King. Mary looking to God in submission and proclaiming, “May it be to me as You have said.” Simeon who labored for years in the temple who declared with the baby Jesus in his arms, “My eyes have seen my salvation.” Anna who devoted day and night looking for the promised Messiah upon seeing Him immediately began, “Giving thanks to God and speaking of Him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” Our expectations expose where we are looking.
No doubt as we come to the end of 2023, there is likely a gap between what you have expected and what you have experienced. I know my gap has been filled with everything from disappointment and grief to joy and hope for a brighter future.
So, friend where are you looking? Are you myopic, fixated on circumstances, or do you have eyes of faith to see the scope of the whole? Is your heart and mind captivated by God and His glory? Do you long to live with a holy expectancy that God will fulfill His promises? Examine your expectations and consider what is capturing your gaze. As we prayerfully move into 2024, may you and I look only to Him for God-sized and God-shaped expectations that bring Him glory and fill our hearts with wonder!
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