Reviving Expectation: Transforming Your Church Experience

Routines are good for us. They help to make habits a part of our lifestyle; thus, making it easier to be consistent. However, routines can also become brainless or as the saying goes, “going through the motions”.

That is great when you find yourself going to the gym without a second thought, but not so much when it comes to arriving to the house of God.

The house of God is not a routine that we add to our life to feel better about ourselves. It certainly isn’t a place to just come, sit, chat and repeat. Many may go because they enjoy the church environment. They love to praise, shout, get convicted, and walk away patting themselves on the back for having “good church”. Only to return home Sunday evening the same way they were Sunday morning.

So, what’s missing? Although I couldn’t say for certain, I do believe that when church becomes routine, we lose expectation.

The Chronic Patient

rear view of a patient walking with crutches on a hospital corridor

I see it all the time in healthcare.

There are two types of patients. Acute patients and chronic patients. Acute patients have short-term ailments and tend to have their expectations of healing met within a temporary timeline. In contrast, chronic patients tend to have lost their hope a long time ago. They show up for the treatments, the tests, the appointments with routine understanding rather than expectation. Their purpose for entering the hospital is no longer to be free of illness, but to manage the symptoms so they can live with the illness.

Similarly, we enter the Church with the same mindset as the chronic patient. There may have been a time where we, just like the acute patient, were excited and hoepful when coming to church. It seemed like everytime you walked into the House of God, He showed up in all His glory and splendor. Yet, now that you’ve been doing this “christian thing” long enough, you no longer go to church expecting to see miracles, signs and wonders. You enter His house excited to have an old school praise party, without the belief He is actually going to change you, and those around you through your praise.

Without expectation, church is fun but not powerful. I want to go back to the time where people came to church with incurable diseases and walked away completely healed. I want to return to praying over people with a genuine belief that God’s glory will be shown through their trials. I want the faith of the church to go back to moving mountains. I want the church to create an environment where the true depth of His power is able to be seen and experienced by all who come through the doors. Strongholds need to be breaking, addictions need to be shattered, sin shouldn’t feel comfortable in the House of God.

We need more expectation! Expectation goes hand-in-hand with faith. Remember faith?! The substance of things hoped for and the evidenc of things unseen. Our expectation is proportionate to our faith. If I have faith that God’s spirit will show up on Sunday, I will go expecting to experience the effects of God’s spirit when it is present amongst man. I won’t be shocked when all my worries and cares have been lifted off my shoulders or when sudden healing comes upon the sick or when the addict can no longer stand to stay the same. I expected it! We need to go back to believeing in the God of the Bible. The One who stopped the sun and confused the enemy on multiple occasions. The One who rained food from heaven! The One who gave sight to a blind man and rose people from the dead. The God who spoke to the storm and it obeyed!

When you go to Church this Sunday, or at any point in your week, go expecting to meet THAT God! Go expecting to witness His Glory! I want more than a routine walk with God. I want to spend my life witnessing the spirit of God working within the earth. We can still see miracles and we can still experience the God we read about. But we have to come with expectation and faith that He can and He will.