Thursday; May 6

Are we under-expecting from people? Throughout the years many of us have run into a problem where we expected people to act better than they did. We became disappointed when people didn’t do what they should have done or didn’t reach the potential they could have attained. (Oh, and by the way, I am sure that many of them could have said the same thing about us.) In days gone by, there seemed to be a higher bar that people were expected to reach and, when they didn’t do it, we became disheartened. I feel like there has been a shift in our collective mindset recently and we have intentionally lowered the minimum acceptable behavior. No, the problem isn’t that godliness or truth has changed, the issue is that we have just come to expect less from each other. We are willing to tolerate less in an effort to unify more.
While this movement to dummy-down our behavior may have taken off in modern society, it hasn’t changed God’s expectations for us. Interestingly, if the truth were known, for many of us who grew up being held to an advanced standard, we probably realize that we aren’t doing what we are supposed to be doing. Like much of the rest of the world, we have become comfortable with under-expecting; however, deep down inside us, we know that we should be doing better. Maybe in the back of our minds we are hearing the warning, “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17). To those of us who know better, we’d better be doing better.
Let’s not become complacent with the world’s standards. Let’s stretch ourselves to do what is right and pleasing to God.

Think About It!

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