Charles Dickens’ novel, Great Expectations,  tells of the struggles and frustrations of Pip, a young man with great expectations. Great expectations can often lead to struggles and frustrations in life. Furthermore, they can result in us missing God in our lives.

Israel missed their promised Messiah, because of their great expectations. They had particular expectations of how their Messiah would come, how He would be and what He would do. However, when Christ came, He did the unexpected. Consequently, the possibility of Christ being their Messiah was dismissed by the people due to the fact that He failed to meet their expectations.

The ancient Prophet Isaiah saw this from afar. Predicting Christ's coming hundreds of years before Christ came, Isaiah asked, “Who hath believed our report?” If I might be allowed to paraphrase, Isaiah asked, “Whose going to believe this?” Isaiah knew that no one was expecting what he was predicting (Isaiah 53:1-12).

① The coming Messiah would be born of a lowly virgin.

② He would not be particularly attractive, so as to attract any special attention.

③ Rather than being popular, He would be despised and rejected.

④ Rather than being happy, He would be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

⑤ Rather than being accepted, He would be ignored and abandoned.

⑥ Rather than seen as the Christ—the Promised One of God—He would been seen as a criminal—one punished by God.

⑦ Rather than coroneted, He would be crucified.

⑧ Rather than enthroned, He would be entombed.

If we today, like Israel of old, have expectations of God that are not founded on His Word and contrary to His will, we're liable to miss God every time He fails to meet our expectations and does something unexpected in our lives. In 2012, let's resolve to rid ourselves of too great of expectations. By doing so we will spare ourselves from many a struggle and from much frustration. In addition, we will reduce the likelihood of us missing God every time He does something unexpected in our lives.

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