Recently, a friend and I were catching up about the most recent happenings in our lives while enjoying weekend brunch. Between bites of omelets and toast, she shared the good news of an answered prayer. But I noticed she wasn’t as excited as I expected.
When I questioned what I perceived to be her lack of gratitude, she provided details on how other circumstances during her week impacted her perspective. And in a vulnerable moment, she said, “I know this is God, but – it’s not perfect.”
Those words struck me deeply. I knew exactly where she was coming from because I understood how different reality can be from your expectations. I recollected the many moments when I questioned God’s blessing or lacked a heart of true appreciation because the answered prayer didn’t match my “perfect” expectation. I was never honest enough to state it that way. It was as if the words that swirled around in my head were coming out of her mouth. I immediately saw the plank of ingratitude sticking out of my own eye.
According to my good friend, Google, the word perfect /ˈpərfək(t)/ is an adjective that means “having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be.”
What Google doesn’t explain is how our version of what’s perfect is swayed by the lofty expectations we create in our minds.
I asked God to show me in His word an example of when our expectations get in our way, and He took me to 2 Kings chapter 5. This chapter tells the story of Naaman, a highly respected commander of an Army, who had leprosy. He was given the chance to go before Elisha to receive healing from the Lord. When it was time for him to meet God’s prophet, Elisha had a messenger tell Naaman to go wash himself seven times in the Jordan to be cleansed of leprosy and have his flesh restored.
Naaman was enraged because this solution didn’t look as he expected. There he stood outside of Elisha’s door with his gold, silver, horses, and chariots, expecting the man of God to come to greet him, call on the name of the Lord, wave his hand over the place where the leprosy was, and miraculously heal him. Instead, he received a word from Elisha’s messenger instructing him to wash in an ordinary body of water.
Naaman was not having it. He voiced his displeasure and was ready to return home in a fit of anger.
Thankfully, after some wise persuasion from his servants, he eventually dipped himself seven times in the Jordan. And as Elisha had spoken, His flesh was restored, and his skin was like that of a young boy. Not only was his leprosy gone, but God gave him more youthful skin than he had.
Won’t He do it?
But how many times have I reacted like Naaman and missed out on God’s goodness because His answer to my prayer didn’t meet my idea of perfection? As if my idea of perfection supersedes God’s perfect will for my life.
When I bought my first home, I was elated that God had given me the ability to achieve this major milestone as a single woman. However, I remained a bit dubious because the house didn’t have a garage. I really wanted a garage and having one would have made the house perfect in my eyes.
Thank God His idea of perfect was way better than mine. The previous owners converted the garage into a third bedroom, a key equity-building feature when it was time to sell the home. His perfect design also included me not having to replace one appliance, not having to do any major repairs, and not having any major issues or excessive expenses related to the home over the seven years I owned it. That’s a perfection I couldn’t have imagined.
Maybe your year is shaping up to look very different than you thought and you are struggling to relinquish your perfect expectations. Instead of a job promotion, you got laid off. Or instead of getting married, you just broke up with your significant other. Perhaps, instead of healing, you find yourself struggling with the side effects of a new medication. It can all feel confusing or discouraging because things aren’t looking as perfect as you imagined.
Friend, let me encourage you. God’s ways are not our ways. He doesn’t think like we do. And thank the Lord for that! He has a greater plan for your life and His plan is often a complete detour from our own. Please believe that His timing is perfect and His plan is perfect. We have to remain obedient and surrender our expectations to Him.
I understand how attached we can become to our plan or expectations of what we think should be done. But God is the King of kings and Lord of Lords. He created the entire universe and uniquely created you. I’m positive He can take your situation and change it to be better than you ever imagined.
Lord, thank you for being perfect. Thank you for knowing us better than we know ourselves. Help us to surrender our expectations and be willing and ready to obey your word. And let the fruitfulness of that obedience be better than anything we could ever imagine. Thank you for your idea of perfection overriding our own. In Jesus’ mighty name, we pray, amen.
