“For God alone my soul waits in silence and quietly submits to Him, for my hope is from Him.” – Psalm 62:5
Shortly after Valentine’s Day you find the first Easter eggs on the shelves. Now I don’t know about your children, but when my kids sees it, their little faces lighten up and they shout silent hoorays! Although they do know and understand the true meaning of Easter, they still can’t wait for that special delivery of delicious chocolate eggs! Like any other family, we have created certain traditions around Easter. And spending quality time with the entire family is a much higher priority than the hope of seeing a fluffy bunny who delivers eggs. Easter to our family is a time of love and a time to get spoiled, but most importantly a time to be reminded of what Jesus did for us on the cross. “No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends.” – John 15:13 AMP
Shortly after Valentine’s Day you find the first Easter eggs on the shelves. Now I don’t know about your children, but when my kids sees it, their little faces lighten up and they shout silent hoorays! Although they do know and understand the true meaning of Easter, they still can’t wait for that special delivery of delicious chocolate eggs! Like any other family, we have created certain traditions around Easter. And spending quality time with the entire family is a much higher priority than the hope of seeing a fluffy bunny who delivers eggs. Easter to our family is a time of love and a time to get spoiled, but most importantly a time to be reminded of what Jesus did for us on the cross. “No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends.” – John 15:13 AMP
But I know that not everybody agrees with Easter eggs and the thought of allowing innocent children to believe in a non-existent bunny, and I respect that. So I promise that this is not an attempt to convert anyone who is in disagreement with our family tradition, but rather an opportunity to share a thought. The thought of believing like children again! Children who expect something to happen, without seeing it. They just believe, and to them that is good enough. Just like our kids know what to expect around Easter time, we need to raise our expectations when we enter into relationship with God. Because He is not a God that disappoints, but rather a God that will and can do far more than what we expect!
“And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” – Isaiah 58:11
Way too often we permit people to confuse us with their traditions (and reasons for their believe system), but we overlook God’s heart in why we should celebrate certain events. We allow the world to overshadow our confidence in God’s complete love (just think about religious tiffs on Facebook!), and to corrupt our thoughts on the possibility to love unconditionally (just think about all the negative stigmas regarding the possibility of a love filled marriage). Why? Because in this worldly system we will always get hurt and we will always experience disappointment from people. We are being taught to never trust anyone and to never put our hopes up. And our favourite saying is undoubtedly ‘If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!’ Well, through Christ all of this changed!! What Jesus did on the cross is probably too good to be true, but it is true! We just need to learn to believe it. We have been saved by grace and mercy, and not by merit. God will never hurt us, and He will never disappoint us. We can always rely on and trust Him. And therefore we have more than enough reason to celebrate the cross. So it doesn’t matter how you celebrated this past Easter, as long as you celebrated it with great expectations in your heart! “He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but because of His own pity and mercy.” – Titus 3:5 (a)
We need to start each day with renewed hope in our hearts, and a firm believe that God is still in control. Don’t allow the world to eclipse your expectation, but rather allow God to unveil Himself in His truest form. Be like the Psalmist who says ‘For God ALONE my soul waits in silence and quietly submits to Him, for my hope is from Him’ – Psalm 62:5.
With Easter behind us, and the celebration of Ascension in less than 40 days, what is your expectation? Dream, pray and await the arrival of the Holy Spirit!
Blessings
Yolandi
“And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.” – Isaiah 58:11
Way too often we permit people to confuse us with their traditions (and reasons for their believe system), but we overlook God’s heart in why we should celebrate certain events. We allow the world to overshadow our confidence in God’s complete love (just think about religious tiffs on Facebook!), and to corrupt our thoughts on the possibility to love unconditionally (just think about all the negative stigmas regarding the possibility of a love filled marriage). Why? Because in this worldly system we will always get hurt and we will always experience disappointment from people. We are being taught to never trust anyone and to never put our hopes up. And our favourite saying is undoubtedly ‘If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!’ Well, through Christ all of this changed!! What Jesus did on the cross is probably too good to be true, but it is true! We just need to learn to believe it. We have been saved by grace and mercy, and not by merit. God will never hurt us, and He will never disappoint us. We can always rely on and trust Him. And therefore we have more than enough reason to celebrate the cross. So it doesn’t matter how you celebrated this past Easter, as long as you celebrated it with great expectations in your heart! “He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but because of His own pity and mercy.” – Titus 3:5 (a)
We need to start each day with renewed hope in our hearts, and a firm believe that God is still in control. Don’t allow the world to eclipse your expectation, but rather allow God to unveil Himself in His truest form. Be like the Psalmist who says ‘For God ALONE my soul waits in silence and quietly submits to Him, for my hope is from Him’ – Psalm 62:5.
With Easter behind us, and the celebration of Ascension in less than 40 days, what is your expectation? Dream, pray and await the arrival of the Holy Spirit!
Blessings
Yolandi