When desires are not met, or hopes are dashed, the bait of satan is dangled in front of us. John 11:1-44 is an amazing passage. Mary and Martha had sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was sick.

Verse 4 says, “…This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” The Lord purposely waited. Verse 6 says, “…He stayed two more days in the place where He was.” 

Lazarus died. Jesus and his disciples went to Bethany. Verse 21 recorded Martha’s broken expectations. It says, “Now Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Mental conversations of ‘if only’s’ often come when our expectations are broken. It is not only futile, but emotionally fatiguing. The Greek meaning for futile is: empty, unproductive, lacking substance, ineffectual, and worthless.

There is only One who is in control. He is our Masterful Orchestrator. It is prudently essential to lay our hopes and dreams before Him with an open hand ~ placing our expectations on Him alone.

I needed to compose my online devotional. I asked the Holy Spirit what to write. The words ‘broken expectations’ came. He took me to John the Baptist who was in prison. He heard about the works of Christ, and sent two of His disciples. Matthew 11:3 says, “And said to Him, Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”

It was John the Baptist who saw Jesus for the first time and declared, “…Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Isaiah 40:3 described John the Baptist. Matthew 11:3 quoted that passage. It says, “…The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.”

John the Baptist’s expectations were broken. He questioned if Jesus was the One. Jesus sent word back. Matthew 11:6 says,”And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” Offended means to cause to stumble.

Broken expectations can throw us off kilter. The remedy? Psalm 62:5 says, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.”

I am fascinated with the words ‘in all wisdom’, from Colossians 1:28 and 3:16. There is only One who has all wisdom, yet He bids us ask Him for it. James 1:5. What a privilege! James 3:17 says that wisdom from above is first pure.

Psalm 12:6 says, “The words of the Lord are pure words…” His word contains His wisdom and knowledge. As we bring it into our hearts, our thoughts are purified. It also is stored in a reservoir, ready for when the Holy Spirit needs it to direct us.

Colossians 2:3 says, “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” It is through our intimate communion with the Lord that He reveals the hidden insights and perspective we need in our journey of progressive sanctification.

Romans 11:33 says, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” We will never be at a loss ~ we cannot plumb the depths. Cry out to Him while inside your crucible-trial.

Psalm 138:8 says, “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me…” The Hebrew for perfect means to end, finish, accomplish, to perform, fulfill. Our promise in Philippians 1:6 says, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

Our trials are God’s way to perfect our journey towards maturity. They are the stamp of His intimate involvement in our lives. As we yield to the work of the Holy Spirit, He is the one who produces the fruit of the Spirit in us. That fruit is evidence that we are walking in the Spirit and not in our flesh. Galatians 5:16.

Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…” This fruit will be the characteristics in the lives of those controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit. We bear the fruit that He produces in us. It is the result of our abiding in Him. John 15:8 says, “By this My Father is glorified…”

Hebrews 10:36 says, “For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.” James 1:3 says, “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”

Romans 5:3 in the Amplified says, “Moreover (let us also be full of joy now!) let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.”

God’s way through our trials develops His character in us. He endured the cross for us through joy. Nehemiah 8:10 says that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Colossians 1:11 says, “Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.”

Jesus’ gift of irrevocable joy was imparted to us the moment of our salvation. John 15:10-11 says, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love…These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” Endurance through joy.

Every trial we encounter is God’s way in our journey of progressive sanctification. I love Psalm 18. They are David’s words after the Lord delivered him from Saul. Verse 1 says, “I will love You, O Lord, my strength.”

Verse 30 says, “As for God, His way is perfect…” Verse 32 says, “It is God who arms me with strength, and makes my way perfect.” In Psalm 25:4 David wrote, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.”

I want the Lord to make His ways known to me. Psalm 103:7 says, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. The Lord revealed to Moses what He was going to do when they faced the Red Sea. The children of Israel saw His acts. They witnessed Him parting the Red Sea, getting them safely across, and then destroying their enemies.

James 1:3 in the J. B. Phillips says of our trials, “…don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends!” Trials expose our hidden flesh and crucifies it, which strengthens our inner man. 

Applying Colossians 3:16 equips us in biblical counseling. We bring His truth into our lives, and it experientially sets us free to set others free. John 8:32. Admonishing means to encourage, warn, exhort, or urge another, through the wisdom and insights we have personally walked in ~ our testimony of freedom.

The Lord seeks those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. John 4:24. Spending time in His Presence, and rehearsing His word back to Him is His delight. The truths we have gleaned from His word, become heart lyrics of adoration ~ spontaneous spiritual songs that bubble up through gratitude.

Psalm 33:1 says, “Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful.” Here is the first verse of a new song. “I come to You O Lord in the womb of the morning. To sit and worship You and call upon Your name. You answer me with a sweetness that melts my heart. And opens me to receive Your words.” Psalm 40:3 says, “He has put a new song in my mouth—praise to our God…”

Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

I learned that verse when I was a child. As I began meditating on it, the Holy Spirit showed me something I never noticed before. It is in two parts. The first part has to do with gathering insights from His word. The second part is worship to an audience of One.

His indwelling word acts like yeast in bread dough. It expands as we apply it to our lives. It helps us see through His perspective. John 15:7 in the Amplified says, “If you live in Me (abide vitally united to Me) and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts…”

James 1:25 says, “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it…a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” Our personal application from Scripture brings inner transformation.

I was thinking about Paul and his letter to Timothy. He was instructing him in 1 Timothy 1:1-11. Then in verses 12-16 he was recounting how the Lord’s grace enabled him to preach the gospel. As he continued, he burst into praise. Verse 17 says, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Our heart is our belief center. God’s word, hidden in our hearts, is the source of our praise. We learn more and more about Him as we read, memorize, and meditate. 2 Peter 1:4 says that through His exceeding great and precious promises, we become “…partakers of the divine nature…”

Worship is a lifestyle ~ not an event. The Psalms are full of verses that will teach our hearts how to honor and magnify the Lord through praise. Psalm 100:4 says, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” The experiential truths that inhabit our hearts, cause us to lift Him up through true worship.

I continued to meditate on the Lord bringing us into intimate communion with Him in the high and holy place. I don’t know about you, but the walls of my finite mind were reverberating, seeking to understand Infinite. My mind went back to Psalm 8:4. It says, “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?”

Moses met with the Lord in a tent that he called the tabernacle of meeting. Exodus 33:7. Verse 9 says that each time Moses went out to the tabernacle, “…the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses.”

Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Colossians 1:27 says, “…Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Our heart is His tabernacle. Psalm 22:3 says, “But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.” The Hebrew for enthroned means: to dwell, sit, remain, abide.