Change Your Expectations of God

In our daily prayers, many times we ask God for a variety of blessings. The blessings we ask from God have a wide range, from relationship issues to employment issues to physical issues, all in need of healing. These issues are very personal to us, and as the saying goes, we know what we want. We go to God in prayer, hoping and sometimes even expecting, to receive exactly what we want from God. And as the saying goes, you can’t always have what you want. 

In the Gospel for 7th Sunday of Luke (Luke 8.41-56), we hear about two miracle healings from God but neither goes exactly how the person was thinking it would go. In the case of Jairus, this rich ruler begged Jesus to come to his home to heal his daughter, knowing that she was young and about to die. Unfortunately, because Jesus was delayed, the young girl died before Jesus ever arrived. Jairus was ready to leave and bury his daughter when Jesus said, “Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be made well.” (Luke 8.50) Jesus knew the daughter would be healed. It was Jairus who had to change his expectation of Jesus.

The other healing was a woman who had been suffering for many years, had spent every last dime she had on doctors, but was still hemorrhaging. Wanting simply to be healed quietly, she secretly approached Jesus (while He was on His way to heal Jairus’ daughter) and touched His garments. She was healed, but not quietly. In fact, it caused a great deal of commotion. “Who touched me?” (Luke 8.45) Jesus stopped and brought public attention to her faith. Jesus knew she was there, and He knew she was going to touch Him. It was the woman who had to change her expectation of Jesus.

There are two lessons in this Gospel, one of patience and one of humility. Both the girl and the woman were healed, but before the healing would take place, Jairus and the woman had to step away from their own expectations and allow God to work as He chose. It takes great humility to leave our expectations aside, but until we do, we won’t experience God’s blessings to their fullest. In the case of Jairus, patience was critical. Jesus already knew the daughter would be healed. It was Jarius who had to learn patience and allow God to work as He chose according to His timing.

As our society continues to suffer, not only during this pandemic but political and cultural tensions, we absolutely must come to God for healing. But when we do, we must first accept that our expectations are rarely the expectations of God, and we must change what we expect. That might mean being more patient, or it might mean sometimes we are even asking for the wrong thing. We must trust that God will always know better, and the only way to guarantee that our expectations are the same as His, is to end each prayer with the following words.

“May it be done according to Your will, God!” Then our will, will become His will.

 My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

 The Daily Readings of the Gospel and Epistle and even the readings from the night before for Vespers, are all interconnected and combined are a centralized teaching that the Church Fathers wanted to present to us. Saturday morning's Epistle and Gospel are an excellent example of this. The Epistle, for Saturday, teaches us the concept that "So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please..." our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:9) and the Gospel explains what it means to please Him. So whether or not we have gone home to Christ in Heaven or away still in this life we ought to do the things that are well pleasing to Christ. What are the things that are well pleasing to the Lord? The Gospel explains that we ought to "... preach the kingdom of God and to heal." What does it mean to heal? It means to bring people to Christ so He can heal them of what spiritually ails them.

 It is only Christ who heals and works miracles. When Christ performed the miracle of the Loaves and the Fishes, the His Holy Apostles distributed them to the people there present. In doing so, the Apostles shared in Christ's Glory. It is the same with the Orthodox Christian today, each and everyone of us has the mandate from Christ to bring people to Him to receive the Loaf that came down from Heaven (Himself, His Body and Blood in Holy Communion). If the person is Orthodox, we are just bringing him or her back Home. If the person is not Orthodox, then we are fulfilling the first part of the teaching to preach the Gospel so the person can learn about Christ and find Him, who they have hungered for, in the Church His Body.

 But the Epistle also makes it clear this is also the duty of those who are in Heaven and are with Christ. How does this work? St. Nektarios of Pentapolis, whose feast we will celebrate soon on November 9th, is reported to have said after his repose, "It's as if we saints are in retirement... The people don't pray to us, don't entreat us, don't ask us for anything, don't give us any handiwork to do. They don't give us the opportunity to pray to God for them." A dear friend of mine said to me very recently, "... in 100 years St. Nektarios has not abandoned us and he won't now!" The same is true of all the Saints, they will not abandon us. These days unfortunately the Saints do not have much to do as not too many people ask them for help spiritually, we ought to ask them to help us so that they can continue their Christian duties. Our beloved St. Nicholas, along with St. Nektarios, and our Sweet Panagia the Mother of our Christ are very excited to help us spiritually in our daily struggles. We just have to give them the excuse to help by asking.

 Many St. Nicholas together with St. Nektarios and the Most Holy Theotokos, the Mother of our Lord pray for us always!

In Christ,

Fr. Simeon Pardalis,      FrSimeon@stnicholastarpon.org 

Memorials

Sunday - November 8

 Victoria Gerakios - 40 days

Vasilios J Katsaras - 23 Years

George Tsangaris - 55 Years

 All ministries wishing to sign up and host the Coffee Hour, please contact Chris Palaidis at 727-808-3895, once the hall reopens.

St. Nicholas Kitchen will continue preparing the Monday meals from 7:30 – 11:00 am. The meals will be delivered to the new Hope Center at the Sheppard center where the meals will be given to those in need by their and our volunteers. We will still need volunteers, food and monetary donations. Meals will be served from 11:00 – 12:00 pm. For further information, please call Chris Palaidis at (727) 808-3895.  

MAKE AN OFFERING OF OIL - Following the ancient tradition of the Temple as commanded by God, Orthodox Christians bring an offering of olive oil to be continually burned in the Church lamps, serving as a reminder of the presence of the Light of God. We invite anyone to make an offering of oil to the Church along with the names of loved ones & friends who are alive in the Lord, or alive with us on Earth, so that we may pray for you, your family and friends.

  *THE DEADLINE IS MONDAY 5PM FOR ALL BULLETIN INFORMATION*

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