Spiritual Expectations

Our language often reveals our expectations.  We talk about God being ever present with us, or about the way the Spirit dwells within us only to speak of our devotional time as our time with God.  If it is true that He is with us throughout the day, why is it that we speak of entering into His presence at certain set aside moments?   And then there is the language which speaks of God speaking to us; yet, when pressed a bit we are very shy about acknowledging that such might actually happen.  After all, none of us want to sound like some spiritual fanatic who actually goes through a day expecting to hear the voice of God.    

When we live with these diminished expectations we are, of course, living out of step with what the Word of God reveals about the way God reveals Himself and makes His voice heard in the creation and in our lives.  The Scripture reveals a God who shows up without any invitations, without any fanfare, and in the most ordinary and mundane moments.  It also speaks of a God who uses all sorts of things such as bushes, mountains, animals, and ordinary people as His voice.    

It is never an issue of God going in hiding, or drawing aside to dwell in silence, but an issue of not truly expecting daily manifestations of the holy in our midst.  We do not see and we do not hear the Holy because our ears are not tuned to what and Who is present all around us at every moment of our lives.  What we profess theoretically is not what we believe in the practical world in which we live.  There are those around us who tell us that if we expect the Holy, we shall surely see and we shall surely see.  Someone much further along the spiritual road than any of us once said, "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you..."  (Matthew 7:7).  Good words for sure, but are we ready to finally take them seriously when it comes to knowing intimately and constantly the Holy One who walks with us?