What Do You Hope For? Do You Have Limited Expectations?

 

What are Your Needs and do you have limited expectations regarding those needs?  

 

Acts 3:1-9 is a story of limited expectations. Peter and John were on their way to the temple because it was the hour of prayer. 

 

And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, 

whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, 

to ask alms from those who entered the temple. 

Acts 3:2

 

Go with me to the gate of the temple called Beautiful. What was the man at the gate doing? He was laying at the gate and asking for alms. Let’s connect with the lame man. Our connection point is this; we all are in search of something, needing and hoping for something. 

 

Now, take a moment to think about this. What is it that you are in search of or needing? Or what are you hoping for? 

 

I remember my first writing class that I ever took while I was getting my Bachelor’s degree in Seminary. My teacher asked us to write down why we wanted to write and why we wanted to write for someone else to read. 

 

For me, that was a no brainer, easiest question I ever answered in Seminary. My answer then, is still the same answer now. It is why I do everything that I do in ministry. 

 

My life has been changed and transformed by the truth and power of God’s Word. His word set me free from a life of bondage to past sin. His word taught me that I am significant, fearfully and wonderfully made, that I have value when once I believed that I did not. He speaks to me through His word. He leads and guides me through His word. His word affects my everyday life. I do what I do, I blog; I write Bible studies; I teach Bible studies because I want to give away what I have been given. 

 

That is exactly what Peter and John did. They gave away what they had been given. 

 

When they got to the gate called Beautiful, they encountered this man who was lame since birth. The man was doing what he did daily, laying at the gate, asking for alms. 

Expecting To Receive Something

The lame man stretched his right hand up to Peter hoping and expecting that Peter would fill it. Peter said to the lame man, “Look at us.”

 

And the Scripture says, “So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.” Acts 3:5

 

I love that this man had expectations. He expected that Peter and John would put something in his outstretched hand to help him through a day or maybe two. Maybe he even hoped they would give him something to help him throughout an entire week. But what the man received was above and beyond his limited expectations. 

 

His expectations were for a temporary fix, but Jesus over threw the mark of the lame man’s limited expectation. And in that instant his life was forever changed. Listen to Peter’s words to the man. 

 

“Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you:

in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.”

Acts 3:6

Then Peter,

 

“took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them--walking, leaping, and praising God.”

Acts 3:7-8

 

Look back to Acts 3:2.

I don’t want you to miss how LONG this man had been lame. Since his mother’s womb… a LIFETIME. Truly, this man faced an impossible situation. The reality is the longer we have been in a situation, the more impossible it seems. Many times we accept it as our fate. The longer our hopes and expectations go unmet, the more we believe the lie, that nothing can be done. If that is you, read last' weeks blog, What Promise Has God Spoken To You And What Are Your Expectations?

I love that this man hoped for and expected a TEMPORARY fix to his “impossible” situation and experienced LIFE CHANGE. 

 

What impossible situation do you need God to change? 

 

We May Need To Raise Our Limited Expectations. 

 

At the same time, we need to make sure our hope and expectations are founded and grounded in the right source, the Way Maker, Miracle Worker, the only one who makes the impossible, possible. When all our hope is in Jesus, we are set to believe beyond all we have ever known and to experience God’s overthrow of our limited expectations. 

 

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,

Ephesians 3:20

 

 

Once again I ask you, What is it you are hoping for? Is it something to help you get through another day? Jesus offers so much more. Trust in Jesus to use the circumstances in your life to over throw the mark of your limited expectations and experience the amazing life change that only Jesus can give. 

 

You see that is what God’s word did for me. I had no idea that God’s word was going to rock my world and turn it completely around. I didn’t realize that God’s Word could offer me more than a temporary fix, but it did! 

 

Once I was unable to walk in the fullness of God’s calling in my life because of the weight of the chains of my past. Those spiritual chains kept me from rising up and really walking. How could I walk and leap and praise God when my past sin weighed so heavy on me? But as I got to know Jesus and got to know His word, slowly He began to take away the chains of my past one at a time until one day, I rose from the bondage of sin and my past to enter into a journey with Jesus that excites and delights me. 

You see, Jesus overthrew the mark of my limited expectations. 

 

Jesus Came to Overthrow the Mark of Our Expectations

That is really what Jesus came to do in all of our lives, overthrow the mark of our expectations. Jesus gave us His purpose statement in John 10:10 when He said, “I have come that they have life more abundantly.”

 

·      The word life in the original Greek language speaks of someone possessed of vitality or animate, of the absolute fullness of life. It speaks of this full life in relation to our life here and now as well as eternal life. 

·      The word abundantly in the original Greek language means, to over throw a set mark. 

 

The mark that Jesus set was the absolute fullness of life. But then He set Himself to overthrow His own set mark. He came that we would experience life above and beyond our expectations. 

 

What is it you need? What is it you want? What is it you are hoping for? 

 

I want to encourage you today to trust Jesus in the circumstances of your life. In Christ, you are set up to experience amazing life change that only Jesus can give. And remember that Jesus came to overthrow the set mark of your expectations.