Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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Looking back at my first month on The World Race, I can’t believe it’s already over. I spent a year waiting for the journey to begin, and now it’s already flying by at warp speed. The first month has been a month of self discovery, realizing that love is extremely powerful, and more than anything that God doesn’t always work within my expectations as I see them.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about expectations. I knew coming into this year that there would be a lot of unexpected things happening all around me. I expected to be blown away. I expect to be shocked by the unexpected, but I don’t think I’ve ever thought about how God views my expectations.

As a team, we studied Matthew’s gospel this month. We read about Jesus’ life, his ministry, his disciples, his death, and his ultimate victory. I’d read most of it before, but as we went through it this time there was a new revelation. Throughout the book there are multiple references to prophecies being fulfilled. Jesus was a living, breathing fulfillment of scripture. I get that. What I’d missed every time before is that He met every expectation the religious people were waiting for, but they missed Him. 
 

(Check out the sign on the front door of one of the houses we went to in New Zealand)

Here are just a few of the prophecies: Jesus was a descendant of David. He was born in Bethlehem, lived in Nazareth, rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (which was later used to buy a potter’s field), and these are just the ones mentioned in Matthew. 

All of these signs were explicitly written in the scriptures that the pharisees knew by heart. They knew all about the king that was to come. The only problem is, they were stuck in what they expected. They got so caught up in what they thought the messiah would look like, that they missed him when he walked right in front of them. He lived every line of prophecy, but he did it God’s way. 

I’m realizing that God’s way doesn’t always look like what I expect. There a promises from God all over scripture and I can base some of my expectations on those promises. But I’m starting to understand that just because I think it’s going to happen a certain way, doesn’t mean that God is limited to working within that framework. God is so much more infinite than I can understand, therefore His plans are much more perfect. When I feel like God has let me down because my expectations weren’t met, I’m reminded that He never breaks HIs promises. Sometimes I may just miss His faithfulness as it happens right in front of my face.

So, as for expectations, I’m going to wait on the Lord to show up. HIs plan is much better than mine, and His timing is way better too. I expect great things to happen, but I’m keeping my eyes wide open for what that’s going to look like! 1 month down, 10 to go!

Expect God to meet and surpass your expectations, just don’t be surprised if He does it in a way you never expected.