ALWAYS... or just occasionally?

For some reason yesterday’s blog post really hit a chord with me.  It is interesting that I received very little feedback from it!  But nevertheless, I thought about it throughout the day and when I read and wrote down 2 Corinthians 2:14 this morning, I sat back in my chair starring at the verse on my computer Bible Study program and meditated on it some more.  The God’s Word © translation says: “But I thank God, who always leads us in victory because of Christ. Wherever we go, God uses us to make clear what it means to know Christ.  It’s like a fragrance that fills the air.”

After a fair amount of time, all of the verse except for the word “always” seemed to disappear!  Then it dawned on me.  That’s what it is.  “Do I ALWAYS expect God to lead me in victory everywhere I go?”  Let me back track a little here…

We are in the process of introducing an additional medication to assist my wife in her cognitive functioning.  I was doing some more research on Alzheimer’s a couple of months ago and came across an article on Nemenda 10mg.  This particular prescription was designed to work along with the patient’s current Dementia medication.   After studying that information I began to see the drug advertised in magazines and on TV.

I mentioned the idea of trying this with my wife to her Neurologist at her 6 month appointment a few days later.  After some thought and discussion we decided to give it a try and formulated the criteria we would use to determine its potential success in improving Piper’s cognitive alertness.

We have been gradually increasing the dosage of the medication for about a month to the point where she has been taking the full dosage for a week.  The last time we increased her original medication it took quite a few weeks for her to adjust to it and some of her reactions were not real positive at first!  With the Nemenda I noticed an almost immediate improvement in her verbal communication.  She has been saying more words and expressions of agreement or disagreement over the last month.

On the down side she has not been as strong when I walk her around the house.  She has also been experiencing an increase in shakes and jolts in the morning right after she gets up for the day.  On Wednesday she had an especially rough morning.  On that night and the next I found myself almost dreading what the morning would bring.  Yesterday it finally hit me that I was not expecting God’s best for her when I would go in to help her up for the day!

That was the revelation that finally dawned on me this morning!  I was inadvertently allowing the trauma and stress related with the effects of the Myoclonus to guide my expectations!  2 Corinthians 2:14 is plainly telling us to always expect God to lead us in victory! In line with yesterday’s blog post, I also began to realize that individuals who may feel like they have a boring testimony or a boring life are not necessarily living with a 2 Corinthians 2:14 level of belief or expectation.

I also recalled an incident last week.  My wife and I had been watching a teaching series concerning the fulfillment of many of the last day’s prophecies concerning Jerusalem that seem to be occurring in these current times.  The well-known and respected Christian teachers were expressing their excitement over the events happening in the region around Israel and were emphasizing the God given, Biblically stated authority and dominion that Christians can have in the midst of these potentially adverse activities.

Right in the midst of that week’s teaching I received some correspondence from some
Christian friends who were lamenting about all the crazy things going on in the world and despondently wrote that they couldn’t wait until Jesus came back to take us away from all of it!

I had to laugh a little as the two inputs on the subject of the potential last day’s events seemed to be on opposite ends of the spectrum.  One very encouraging and expectant of God’s Word working in our lives and the other only expecting the worst to win out and looking at Jesus’ triumphant return as an escape route for the believers!

I had my attitude and understanding adjusted by the Word this morning!  When I went marching into our bedroom a few moments later to help my wife up, I went in expecting all the Word that we have been speaking over my wife for numerous years now to be working in a very visible way in her body!  I was not expecting to find her shaking, but was expecting the disease to shake right out of her! 

It was funny and added to my joyful expectation when the dog jumped off the chair she was sleeping on in the living room, pranced into the quiet of our bedroom before me and began to roll on her back and bark at the top of her lungs!  At first I thought to run in and silence her but then I realized that she was just joining in with me by expressing her joyful doggy expectation of God’s best for Piper!  When I walked in the room a few moments after, Piper was awake and smiling in bed! 

A few minutes later as I declared our personalized version of Psalm 91:16 to my wife where the Psalmist expectantly writes of the Lord saying: “With a long life will I satisfy you Piper, and make you to behold My salvation.” (personalized Jewish Publication Society Bible) she vigorously nodded her head, smiled and said “Ah Ha!”  Was that not confirmation… icing on the cake to what God was showing me earlier?  I would think so!

So, where do you stand on the spectrum of expectation?  Are you on the side where you know that you know that God’s Word will work for you as you get it into your heart, understand His love for you and stand unmovable on the Word for whatever you need… or are you at the other end and tend to be a bit despondent as you allow the circumstances you see unfolding around you to dominate and ultimately dash your hopes?  Then again… maybe you’re somewhere in between the two sides of the spectrum.

Where do you really want to be?  Where do you think that God wants you to be?  I came across a devotional entitled “Expecting God to Act”  on the website Jesusfreakhideout.com.  I hadn’t heard of this site before today, but discovered it to be a large online resource for Christian music. This devotional perfectly sums up what I’ve been attempting to convey today.  I would encourage you to follow the link to this site and to read and take to heart what it says!  http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/devotionals/act.asp

Have a great weekend.  Stay in tune to and expectant of God’s Word working on your behalf and keep asking yourself… “What or Whom am I expecting today?”