Do you strive to meet the expectations of others? Do you have your own expectations of others? Are your expectations low or high? Is meeting expectations important to you? Are you meeting God’s expectations?
We all have our own expectations. We have expectations of ourselves and for others. After all, there are some people who we don’t care to be around. The simple reason is they don’t meet our expectations for behavior or achievement or perhaps looks.
Expectations drive what we do and how we behave. Code of conduct rules in our workplaces guide our behavior while on the job. Job descriptions and expectations are how we are measured for job performance and affect our possibilities of a pay raise.
God has expectations, too. He expectations our very best. Our best behavior and how we treat others. Our best effort in carrying out the work He has laid before us. Our best efforts to trust Him, growing our faith. He also expects us to give back to Him.
We see in today’s passage Jesus is chastising the Jewish leaders for being diligent in paying ten percent to the temple, but they were not acting as God wanted them to. In other words, they were attempting to pay their way into God’s favor. It doesn’t work that way.
By and large, I have observed the opposite in today’s culture. We attempt to justify ourselves by telling ourselves we are good people and working at various tasks in the church, but we won’t give God the ten percent He desires.
Jesus, as our perfect example, has set the bar high. We are to strive to meet all the expectations. Now, Jesus came to be our perfect sacrifice, to cover our sins. But that does not mean we are to give up trying to meet the high expectations God has for us.
I pray we all strive to meet God’s expectations. I pray we study His word to understand His expectations. I pray each one of us will spend time in prayer asking God to guide us and inspire us to be the person He wants us to be. Strive to meet God’s expectations. Know what His expectations are. Don’t give up. Make continual progress. Seek God’s guidance. Trust Him.
Matthew 23:23-24 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”
Marty Pressey 