What do you expect?
by Lindsey Hanekom
We recently had the joy of celebrating our son’s third birthday and for a very long time Kyle was very clear what he wanted as his present... a bike. Every time we saw a bike, we would hear, “I am getting a bike for my birthday.”
At no point did we actually tell him he was going to get his long-anticipated bike. As far as his child-like trust was concerned, he had asked, it was what he desperately wanted and so we would provide it. There was no reasoning beyond that. There was no question of how it was going to happen ... just a certain knowledge that, as his loving parents, we would give him what he desired so much.
“My bike!” was the cry on his birthday, with a huge smile on his face. For all of his certainty that a bike would be forthcoming, it was still a surprise to him that his desire was now an actual reality.
It makes me wonder how we are with God. Do we reveal to Him the desires of our heart, persistently expecting good gifts? Just as Kyle, with no evidence to prove it, knew that he was going to get his bike, do we live our lives knowing that God will truly provide what we need and even sometimes what we just want?
It is so easy to fall into the trap of believing that God will give us something we don’t want or we can try to work out a way of achieving or acquiring what it is we are asking for. Yet, this prevents us from living as a child who doesn’t ask how, when, where or how ... just simply knows what its heart yearns for and knows that God will provide in His time and His way.
As time drew closer to Kyle’s birthday, the list of “I wants” increased dramatically. Yet, the true heart’s desire remained firm and steadfast... nothing, not one other gift, superseded the desire for a bike.
This, I feel, is the crux of the issue; knowing the true desires of our heart. Knowing what it is that is the right thing to be asking our Heavenly Father for and then enjoying living in excited expectation of its impending arrival. For He is surely a generous and loving Father who longs to see the delight on our face when we realise that He truly does know what we want and joyfully gives it to us.
Prayer: Father God, You are the source of everything and I ask You today to reveal to me the very deepest desires of my heart so I can live in anticipation of the day that I will receive them as a child of Yours. Amen.
Lindsey Hanekom Lindsey has worked at all of our UK centres over the years and has settled at Ellel Scotland with her husband, Johann and their two young children, Kyle and Zoe. As part of the Leadership Team at Ellel Scotland, Lindsey has a heart for the deeply broken as she oversees the prayer ministry and is an established and passionate teacher with Ellel. In her spare time, Lindsey enjoys the natural world, particularly the ocean, and is trained as a specialist medic to assist stranded and injured marine mammals.
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