A few weeks ago as I was waiting for an elevator I reached out to the hand sanitizer dispenser while in conversation with another person and as we got on the elevator he reached for it also. He commented that it was empty and I replied yes it was for me too and then he asked me “so why are you rubbing your hands together?”
I looked down and sure enough I was. I had gotten nothing out of the dispenser but I was rubbing my hands together.. We laughed when we noticed that he was doing the same thing. It was just a force of habit, a routine that we do it without even thinking.
Lots of things in life are that way. When we do something out of routine we often keep doing it even when the original purpose is gone. Sadly we do that in our spiritual life too. There will be many people who will get up and go to church this week merely out of habit. They will even go through the routines of church, but not really get anything out of it. Most times when people don’t get anything out of church it’s because they don’t expect it.
We know that when we go to God we will never come up empty. We might not get everything that we want, but we know that he will he always give us what we need. When you go to church, when you read your Bible, when you sit down to pray, what do you expect to happen? I don’t mean that to say “believe for a miracle“ type of thing. I am simply asking you this: when you open your Bible to read do you expect to hear God's voice?” Or put another way: “when you go to church do you expect to see God move?”
Our expectations plays a role in our worship. There is truth to the fact that if you go in expecting it to be a good day, it probably will be. If you go and expecting the same old thing then that’s probably what you will get. I talk to people on the way out the door at church, so I know that two people sitting side-by-side can have wildly different experiences in church. Why is that? Some of it is the movement of the spirit, of our hearts tenderness to God’s word, and some of it is we see what we expect to see
I challenge you today to change your expectations. When you open your Bible expect to hear God’s voice. When you sit down to pray expect that God is listening to you. When you go to church expect to see God move, to see souls saved, and to see people join the church. Don’t merely go through the routine, make sure that all of your heart and mind is dedicated to him. Even the expectations.