God Doesn't Always Meet our Expectations

One of the challenges of discipleship is that God doesn't meet our expectations.

Perhaps there are unanswered prayers, or unforeseen trials that God appears to give no warning nor preparation for.  Perhaps something happens in our life that seems cruel.

However, if God always meets our expectations, what kind of a God is He?

If God doesn’t challenge us or act differently than we would expect, what kind of a God is He?  Why would we need Him?  In short, why would God be anything other than a psychological construct?

We believe in a God that is transcendent and superior, possesing a greater power, awareness, and perspective than we possess. If his awareness and perspective are greater than ours, it stands to reason that there will be times when our perspective and awareness are different from God's; if they are not different, what type of a God is He? In a sense, then, having unmet expectations, or unexpected surprises in our lives, or counsel and teachings and principles and ideas and framework that challenge us is an evidence that God's awareness and perspective is greater than ours. Thus, we may reasonably expect His counsel to at least periodically push back or challenge us.

This is not to say that God is some trickster or charlatan, some unconcerned, arbitrary, or unknowable being, or that God lives in the realms of malice or random decision-making. He is neither a computer program nor a roulette wheel. This is to suggest that God's plans and designs may not always agree with us, and in a sense, that is a witness or evidence of God's divinity, of His greatness, and of His divine perspective and superior knowledge.