Hello,
We join with Jesus in Jerusalem as a Jewish Festival is taking place. We gather with the crowds inside the city near the sheep gate at the pool of Bethesda with its 5 covered porches. Its mayhem, sick. blind, lame and paralysed people lay on the porches, among them a man who had been there 38 years. I see Jesus talking with him, there’s a hush, we all want to hear what he says. He asks the man would you like to get well?
You can read John’s record of this event in John 5:1-14. This man is healed! The thing is the Jewish leaders don’t like it and begin once more to persecute him, the NLT actually says, “They tried all the harder to find a way to kill him!” But why? Because Jesus had healed this man on the Sabbath, and He had called God, ‘Father’
Jesus didn’t meet the expectations of the Jewish leaders, and they wanted to kill him!
Expectations are powerful, whether our own or others, and when they are not met, powerful emotions are stirred up and lead to actions.
Jesus understood what was in their hearts and in John 5:19 He makes this statement.
“19 So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing.”
Jesus makes it clear that He is taking his lead from His Father. He is meeting His expectations. In fact, he says, he does only what he sees the Father doing.
These words of Jesus challenge me more than most.
Photo by Karen Way – Sunset at Highbury Fields, Islington
In John 8:12 Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
The Question is, who or what am I following?
Expectations of others increase, our diaries are full and we struggle to prioritise our time.
Media bombards us with what to eat, what to wear, what gifts to buy our loved ones.
The atmosphere is charged with a frenetic pace of activity and before we know it, we’re also caught up in it all, following. When that happens I feel a sense of pressure, heaviness that weighs me down and robs the joy of Christmas.
In the midst of it all, our challenge is to take time and bring our lives before God, the one who has promised to teach us what is for our good and lead us in the way we should go.
You could light an advent candle and give yourself the gift of silent moments as the date burns away
Consider for a moment a busy day; then you get a text or a phone call asking for your help.
What do you say? Yes? No?
Reflect on the internal conversation you’re having with yourself as you make your answer.
What are you thinking?
What are your feelings?
How do you decide?
For years, I simply said ‘Yes’ to the cost of my family and my own well-being..
even if we are unaware of our process, each expectation still sows and reaps an action in our lives that impacts us and the lives of those around us.
Consider: who or what am I following today?
are there areas in my life where I need to realign to your light