Examine Your Expectations!

God is interested in our formation. But that formation won't be healthy if we are intoxicated with false expectations, and histrionic motivations. The Second Coming WILL HAPPEN. Be Ready!

Alexander Pope said, “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”

What a sad, cynical attitude! Yet, this goes to show that it isn’t having expectations that are wrong; it’s having wrong expectations.

So, the Church calls us to discipline our expectations by grounding them in reality, and reality is Jesus Christ!

He is Real! And He promised us He would return! That’s an expectation that can radically change your priorities and your choices! Proper expectations produce Proper Preparations!

And that is precisely why the Lord taught His Church that He will come again. No schemes, no hidden agendas, no “blood moons” or “gnostic” secrets to be revealed only to the ones “really in the know!”

Just the power of expectation and wakefulness to prepare us for His return, whether at our mortal death or the Parousia, the Second Coming!

Look at our Gospel Lesson this morning in Matthew 24:42-47:

The Lord said, “Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.”

The power of not knowing when but knowing what will happen is the key to understanding the wisdom of the Church and Her teaching about the Second Coming of Christ. Jesus Christ will return, and that’s all we need to know.

This isn’t so we will be ignorant but because Christ is the object of our love and devotion, not the passion-inducing drama of childish “second coming” pandering.

Whether His coming is preceded by “Great Tribulation” or the always present “antichrists” who have always tried to usurp the Lord’s place in our hearts, or whether we meet the Lord in our mortal appointment in death, we love Him. We desire to be with Him, and we long to go to Him, which motivates us to be watchful for Him.

The point of the lack of specifics is a feature, not a bug!

You are meant to learn how to desire Christ above all things and all others. If you are going to be ready for the Coming of the Lord, this is the path!

This is the significant and profound difference between what the Church has always taught concerning the Second Coming and the multitude of sensationalistic counterfeits that scream for our attention today. The more sensational, the more proof that their lack of sobriety and peace shows their incompatibility with the timeless message of the Faith! So, don’t be captured by “rapturemaina” and all the silly (and suspiciously complicated) popular “systems” being promoted by those only interested in capturing your attention. No matter how slick the presentation, the truth is better suited to prepare you for His coming again!

St. Gregory was a hero of the Faith in the third century AD. He served King Tiridates of Armenia until the king learned he was a Christian. In an attempt to get him to renounce Christ, the king had the man tortured. But Gregory refused to abandon Christ. Finally, the king had Gregory thrown into a pit filled with filth and snakes and left him there to die. But the saint was preserved for fourteen years as certain widows brought him food and helped sustain him. Gregory was set free when the people learned how God preserved him amid the vipers, and he saw many Arminians come to Christ. Even King Tiridates repented and followed Christ. The saint was made a bishop and served the Church in Armenia for the rest of his life. He reposed in peace in 325 AD and is called the “Illuminator of Armenia.”

Today, one of the most powerful lessons of the promised Second Coming is the power of a disciplined life. Regularly examining our expectations, priorities, and motivations will go a long way to sober my life and grow me in the maturity of the Faith. The purpose of the Church teaching us about the Second Coming of Christ isn’t to satisfy our curiosity or feed our frenzied expectations but to insist our central purpose is to love Christ so much that we spend our whole lives reorienting every part of our lives toward Christ. This is the way to live a Normal Orthodox life.

P.S. Let us the faithful today all acclaim with divine songs and hymns the renowned hierarch Gregory as an athlete for truth's sake, as a shepherd and teacher, a universal luminary bright with splendour; for he intercedeth with Christ that we be saved.

Fr. Barnabas Powell is the parish priest at Sts. Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene Greek Orthodox Church in Cumming, GA. He is also the founder of Faith Encouraged Ministries and produces the Faith Encouraged Daily Devotional on Substack. Watch the Faith Encouraged YouTube Channel here - https://www.youtube.com/@FaithEncouragedTV