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What do you Expect?



            Steve Blass played major league baseball for 10 years as a pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates.  In 1971 he won the World Series and in 1972 he was one of the league’s best players and was named a National League All-star.  Then, in 1973, everything fell apart.
            Suddenly Steve Blass could not control his pitches.  No matter what he tried, his game went straight downhill.  Within 2 years, he was out of baseball and the phrase "Steve Blass disease" was coined.  Blass explained, “When it was gone, it was gone for good. I started thinking about all the things that could go wrong and suddenly they did”.
            There is an old saying, “Whether you believe you can or you believe that you can’t, you are right either way” and that certainly was true of Steve Blass.  He stopped believing that he could be a major league pitcher and, before he knew it, he was not one. 
            Though it is not a “hard and fast rule”, we often get what we expect to get.   If you expect your kids to be bad, they will act in ways that drive you crazy. Expect to have a bad day and you will find lots to complain about.  Expect that people are out to get you and you will discover things that seem to confirm that belief. 
            On the other hand, if you expect to enjoy a certain activity, you likely will.  If you think that you are going to like your new neighbours, they probably will seem really nice.  If you expect a new experience to be an adventure instead of a problem, it will change the way you go through it.
            In Hebrews 5:11-6:4, the writer tells his readers that they have to change their thinking and their expectations.  They been “slow to learn” the lessons of God (5:11).  In fact, he says that they need to “leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity” (6:1). In other words, they were the limiting factor in their faith.  God was ready to great things in them and through them, but it was not happening because they did not believe that it could happen. 
            The same holds true for us.  What we believe will shape what we receive.  The fact is that God is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20).
            So, what are you getting? 
            Well, what do you expect?

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