I am not one to ask many things of God. I fear making him into some sort of cosmic santa claus at my beckon call. My heart resonates more with David in Psalm 27. "ONE THING I ASK of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord." Of all the things I could ask God for, my heart constantly only desires one thing. I only ask that I may be with God and know Him more and seek Him. I do not ask many things of God, but I certainly ask this one thing. My heart leaps within myself and it seems to always scream, "Seek his Face! Seek God still! Be with God again!" (27:8) It is interesting that David is in the midst of great turmoil when he wrote this Psalm. He was being attacked by several armies; he was in a great struggle, and he had needs. There were, in these circumstances, all sorts of things he could have rightfully asked God for. But he still came to God and said, "ONE THING I ASK of the Lord..." Of all the things he could have asked God for, he was only concerned with one. "My heart says of you, 'Seek His face!' Your face, Lord, I will seek."
My life is chaotic to say the least right now. Life gets more and more crazy, and I cannot keep up with it. There are so many things I could ask of God right now, but my heart truly desires only ONE THING. I only ask one thing; that I may be connected to the heart of God for the rest of my life, to see and notice God's phenomenal love for me each day. To "gaze at the beauty of the Lord", to simply rest.
Swallowing a Cow and Other Realities
How many times were you told as a child to chew before you swallow? There is good reason for that. You cannot swallow whole pieces of steak or you are going to choke. When it comes to various parts of our life, we often try to swallow the whole cow, and we more than choke. We get outright discouraged by the impossibilities.
We have huge goals, dreams, and hopes. There is nothing wrong with that. Big dreams and hopes are only accomplished with smaller goals.
It goes beyond hopes and dreams. It involves our desires.
We desire to be better people. We desire to be closer to God, and those are great desires. Our desires are only accomplished with smaller goals in those directions.
You will not write that book if you don't LOVE sentences.
You will not win any battle in life without a thousand cuts.
Intimacy with God is an unrealistic expectation if you do not make realistic goals like reading His Word 3 days this week, journaling 3 times this week, or praying each day...this week.
Healing that wound in your life is an unrealistic expectation, but a realistic goal might be not isolating yourself or avoiding people this week...and next week...and...
Being a more involved spouse or parent is an unrealistic expectation, but a realistic goal might be to ask your spouse on a date this week, have a 'daddy-date' this Saturday, say 'I love you' once a day this week, or after each conversation this week.
This goes on and on and on...
When you do not set realistic goals, you can only form unrealistic expectations.