What Do You Expect God to Do in You?

What do you expect God to do in you?

Do you expect God to move in what you’ve asked Him to move in, or do low expectations reach even to our faith? See, teenagers aren’t expected to do much in theological or ministerial realms.

But we should change this.

In 1 Timothy 4:12, the Apostle Paul famously tells us, “Let no one despise your youth.”

We love that part, don’t we? We often harp about how God calls us young people to greatness just as much as He does adults.

But we miss the next part, the part we don’t like so much. “But be an example to believers…” And so follows a list of what we are to set examples in.

You see, we young believers aren’t just called not to be looked down on; we’re called to be looked up to.

What do you expect God to do in you?

This question defines the trajectory of our whole lives. Do we expect God just to call us to lead an ordinary herd-like life in the mass flock of complacency?

Nope.

God calls us to be examples in every part of our lives –- conduct, love, spirit, faith, purity. We talk so much about all these topics, but do we really expect God to go above and beyond what we hope for?

Say I told you to name me a price in money, and I would give you double that price. If we were all honest, we know we’d put a pretty high price to double. So why is our faith different?

Many times in the Bible Jesus says, “You will see greater things than these” (John 1:50) or something similar.

Well, I don’t know about you, but if that’s the case I’m going to set my bar pretty high.

I dream of seeing a generation of young people, my generation, rise up and completely blow the idea of teenage unfruitfulness out of the water. But in order for us to achieve this goal, we need to get rid of our own low expectations about ourselves.

Why should we be afraid to ask for more, anyway? Our God — Jesus, His Father, and the Holy Spirit –- isn’t like any of the Greco-Roman gods, who made decisions on a whim or for measly arbitrary reasons. Our God is on our side!

Twice in John 14 Jesus says, “Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do.” So why are we afraid to ask?

I love this, because I know that God isn’t going to hum or haw about what I ask Him to do. It’s not like He’s going to say, “I don’t know, Jacob. That lie you told two weeks ago was pretty unrighteous. I guess I can’t use you.” Not at all! Of course, we all repent of our sins (and rightly so!), but God tells us He then moves them “as far as the East is from the West” (Psalm 103:12).

I imagine the situation more like this: when I ask God to move in an area of my life He says, “Great idea, Jacob! But wait until you see how much better I can do than that!” So I love bringing my ideas to God.

Sure, there are times when I have an idea that doesn’t work out, but most of the time I’ve realized it’s because there were even better things coming right up after. So don’t be afraid. We’re never betting when we do something with God.

Brothers and sisters, let this continually encourage us to expect more from our faith and watch God do more than we expect!

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