God of the Unexpected

Greetings All,

   Just wanted to reflect on the "God of the unexpected" as I believe that this is how God usually operates and how I have come to experience Him again in this holy season.
   You see, Jesus was born in the most unexpected of ways, to a virgin, in the most unexpected of places, born in a stable and placed in a feeding trough. People had no idea that this was how God was going to send Messiah into the world or that this was to be the beginning of the greatest life ever lived. God is, and always has been, the God of the unexpected.
   We are all familiar with the expression of "when you least expect it, expect it."  I think it is fair to say that that is often how God does things. The Scriptures often refer to "the fullness of time," and as time passes people often forget and stop expecting. Then, POW! God does something totally unexpected, and yet promised, and, if we recognize that it is God, we are overwhelmed with the goodness of God.
   One of my favorite worship songs has a chorus that says : Waiting in expectancy, surrendered to Your sovereignty, I'm hungry for true intimacy, Lord, for the things of Your heart. And I often wonder if it is true that we are "waiting in expectancy." You see, most of what God does that is unexpected has been foretold in the Scriptures that He will do. Whether it is of the prophetic fullfillment or of the essence of His character being brought to bear on a life, we always seemed surprised that He would be so good to us, and the things He does come as so unexpected, primarily because we stopped expecting, and we stopped being surrendered to His sovereignty and we stopped hungering for true intimacy and seeking His heart, that we miss the point. The point is that He has told us that He has a plan for us, to prosper, not to harm us, to give us hope and a future. He has said that He will meet our every need according to His riches in glory. he has said that He will heal us, that He will come to us, that he will never leave us nor forsake us. And yet, we are surprised when He does all this and more. We forget that God is true to His Word and that His Word does not return unto Him void, but that it accomplishes every purpose for which He has sent it. He heals, He reconciles, He restores the years the locusts have eaten, He sets the captives free, He does what He says He will do, and we act as if it is unexpected. The onlt thing that might be unexpected is the how He might do it. His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts, they are higher than ours. God will often take, even, the follish things of this world in order to confound the wise. But if we are looking and holding on to His promises, then we ought not be surprised when He moves in our life and does what might be conceived as the unexpected.
   So my question to you in this wonderful season we call Christmas is this: Are you seeking after the things of God? Do you know the God of the unexpected and do you wait in expectation, that in the fullness of time, He will do what He has said He will do?
   I pray that you all have a very merry and very blessed Christmas.

Because of Jesus,

Pastor Jeff