We all go through life imagining what the perfect life would look like don’t we?  We see others with more money…less stuff…more stuff…different jobs and no matter what, we wonder, “Would my life be better if I had what they have?”  I think if I just did this or that…all my problems would go away.

I remember one time before Jim and I got married we took three of our four kids on a weekend away at Cumberland Lake.  We had high expectations of the perfect weekend allowing our three kids still at home to get to know each other.  We had the perfect blended family in mind.   We had planned the weekend with fun things we knew the kids would enjoy doing.  When we got there, we unpacked the car and headed out for a day of adventure.  The first stop was one of those restaurants where you drive up and park.  Someone on roller skates came out to take our order and then skated back with our food some time later.   It was something different since we didn’t have one of these places back home and they had a nice assortment of food that the kids would enjoy.  It was the perfect stop for some famished kids.

My daughter and her friend were in the back with Jim’s two kids in the bucket seats in the middle of the van and Jim and I up front.  As the food was delivered, we all excitedly passed the goods around the van with the anticipation of the first “fun” we would have that weekend.  Most of us had taken a bite or two when one of the kids in the middle seat started choking.  He had bitten off a piece of his cheesestick and the cheese was stringing down the back of his throat not allowing him to move it up or down!  Jim turned around and held out his hand just in enough time to catch the flying, chewed up piece of cheese.  We all just sat there looking at our food.  One by one, each person put their food back into their bags and filed out of the van to the trash.   No one looked at each other but just returned to their seats, solemnly staring forward waiting for our next great idea.  Not wanting the day to start on a sour note, I cheerfully turned and asked, “Who wants to go bowling?”

By the time the weekend was over and we had all gotten to know each other a little better, we could laugh at our first experience as a “family”.  However, what we had expected for the weekend and what we got were two different things.  I can’t say it was bad because we didn’t get to enjoy our meal…it was just different.

Have you ever made the perfect plan with high expectations?  Perhaps it was a vacation, a new relationship or even a new home?  We live, we dream, we plan, we expect.  How does your relationship with God enter into your life, dreams, plans and expectations?  As children of the King, we should be living big, dreaming big, prayerfully planning big and expecting God to be in every little detail.  However, when we leave Him out of our lives, dreams, plans and expectations, things often fall apart.  Perhaps they might even go as planned but just aren’t as big a blessing as we expected them to be simply because we forgot to include God.

The truth is, we serve the CREATOR of the universe.  If we ask Him to come into our lives and fill our dreams with His plans for us, we should be expecting great things.  I see so many ask others to pray for them and the answer is, “Sure, I’ll pray for you,” in a monotone response.  Why aren’t we excited?  Why aren’t we expecting great things when we pray?  Is God a God you can’t count on?  Of course we pray for things and don’t always get the answer we asked for, but does that make God bad?

I so want to live a victorious life in Christ, don’t you?  I want to get excited about praying for God’s plan in my life and in others’.  I want to wake up every morning with a supernatural expectation that only God can give me.  I want to embrace the fact that the Creator of the Universe, Savior of the World wants me to join Him on HIS team and help HIM to reach others!  We serve an AWESOME GOD!  Why aren’t we excited and jumping up and down about it?

This week I travel to Northern Indiana for four speaking arrangements to share my personal testimony of how God came into my life and changed me.  My body and mind are weary from the last two weeks of saying goodbye to my brother in two memorial services, grieving over the void it leaves in my life, not much sleep for a while now and demands of things needing to be completed here before I go on the road again.  However, I have great expectations.  I know that my strength is not what gets me through; nor is it what is effective in leading others to Christ.  I depend on God who is my strength when I am weak and even when I am strong.  I know that if He is first, He will bless my travels and words despite my physical circumstances.  I’m expecting GREAT things!

What is God asking you to plan today for Him?  Has He invited you to serve Him in some way and you have not yet said yes?  What are you waiting for?  Life gets busy, we get tired, but it’s not about us.  It’s about Him.  Trust me.  Your results may not look anything like what you planned or dreamed but with God in the center of it all, you can expect the unexpected!   So go big!  Live life to its fullest, dream like you can’t lose, prayerfully plan with God in the center of it all and get EXCITED that you serve a God that exceeds any expectations you may have!  The key is to not stop.  Keep moving, praying, serving and expecting!  See you next week!

2Corinthians 12:9-10 (NKJV)  And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” … Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Ephesians 3:20  Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.