What To Do When God Does Not Meet Expectations

God will not meet your expectations.

That’s not how most devotionals start, but it’s clearly in line with the experience of Jonah when God starts messing with him. And let’s face it, we’ve all had our expectations left unmet by God, too. Sometimes it’s because God asks too much of us, sometimes it’s because God withdraws, and sometimes it’s because God gives us crud we don’t want to deal with - but inevitably, God lets us down. God does not do what we want or expect.

So what do we do about that?

One thing that we see time and time again in scripture is that God honors those who speak directly of their disappointment with God. Of course, many of us did not get that teaching in our religious upbringing because it sounds like disrespect when we tell God what a poor job God’s doing running the universe. But over and over and over again we see it in scripture. Take, for example, the opening words of this psalm:

Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? - Psalm 10:1

Those words are honest and raw. And the rest of the prayer doesn’t get a lot sweeter. But this prayer got included in the Bible - we are SUPPOSED to pray this way!

Take a moment today and think about a disappointment (big or small) that you have with God. Go ahead and get honest and direct that straight to God.