The Expectation of Joy

What are your expectations? Do you have great expectations for what God has in store for the future? Are you waiting expectantly for joyful resolve?

Hope and joy can be tied to our expectations. Managing expectations can be difficult. If we are aware and honestly reflect, we all have expectations of some kind. We wait hopefully with expectations of future joy.

The pessimist says the key to happiness is the management of your expectations. Actor Michael J. Fox once said, “My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectations” (Michael J. Fox).

Actress Sandra Bullock, got closer to the truth of expectations when she said, “False expectations take away joy” (Sandra Bullock). Which means, we should set our expectations on true and realistic expectations, like the truth of God’s word and God’s promises fulfilled.

In contrast to the pursuit of happiness, the follower of Jesus seeks great joy in the expectation of what God has in store for the future in ushering in his consummate joy in his advent. The follower of Jesus waits in expectation of the joy of God’s coming Kingdom and his restoration of all things.

John the Baptist anticipated God’s coming Kingdom in sending Jesus the Messiah, saying, “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:29-30, ESV).

John rejoiced greatly at the coming of Jesus as he prepared the way for Jesus to usher in his salvation and his Kingdom in the world. In encountering Jesus and in hearing the word of Jesus, John said, “This joy of mine is now complete.”

John’s expectation of joy was met in Jesus as he waited on Jesus, encountered Jesus, and listened to Jesus’ voice, and as John decreased and as Jesus increased in focus and importance.

Like John the Baptist, our expectations of joy are made complete when we wait on Jesus and experience his advent, or arrival, in our lives.

As Doug Greenwold said in Chapter 8, Restoration, in Zechariah and Elizabeth, Persistent Faith in a Faithful God, "Yes, the Lord rescues. Yes, the Lord restores. God has His ways. And, yes, the Lord certainly does remember!"

May we have expectations of great joy this Advent as we await the coming of Jesus, and may our joy be complete in Jesus as he increases in our lives.

A Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent (O Adonai / O Lord of Might): “O Lord Jesus Christ, you sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise make ready your way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient toward the wisdom of the just, that at your second coming to judge the world, we may be found a people acceptable in your sight; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).

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