What are you hoping for... expecting to happen?

Unfortunately, I believe most Christ-followers in America have quit hoping. Our rationalistic society has has invaded our ability to hope and to expect amazing things to happen. And yet hope is the natural response to a life with God.

Our current series “Expectancy” is one that is obviously tied to the Christmas celebration, but I also want to use this time to lay out some beginning steps toward the idea of a 21-day fast that we will be experiencing together as a community. Last year our whole UCity community joined together to fast for 21 days: inviting God into some key areas of our lives, desiring to experience more of his plan for our lives and raising our sense of expectancy in anticipation of what He would do. And God did some truly miraculous things in the lives of so many people and in the life of our church.

For me personally, one of the focuses of my fasting was the completion of the adoption of Tia and Garrett into our family. Our lives have been forever changed and incredibly blessed as we watched God work every detail out this past year. We are still marveling at the ways God continues to use these kids to transform the lives of many others around us. My faith has grown, and the faith of our kids has grown as they prayed and asked God for this. I could go on and on, telling stories of marriages that were put back together, family relationships that were transformed, personal finances that were turned around, health problems that were healed and jobs that became incredibly profitable. Each of the people in these stories give credit to God as they sought Him in the fast last year.

This year has also been an incredible year for our church. We have grown by 25%, many people have accepted Jesus as Savior, we have stayed on pace with our budgeted needs, we have committed to give $750,000.00 to show LOVE to our local community, we have brought home 5 more orphans, we have defined 10 transformational projects, and we have sent another couple to the mission field. In all of these things I sense the hand of God and I am grateful for the leadership at UCity that led us to fast and seek God’s activity with a greater intensity than ever before.

For this reason and so many more, I have a great sense of EXPECTANCY as we head into the 21-day fast of 2011. We will be fasting as a community from Monday, January 10 – Sunday January 31.

We will be preparing you for this fast over the next three weeks. So begin to think about and prepare yourself for this fast. And rather than get overly-focused on what a fast is or the details of a fast, begin in your heart to GET EXCITED about what God has in store for you during this fast and throughout the course of 2011.

I have recently found out that several of my close friends are expecting a baby. And while there are A LOT of details to think through and plans to make… right now none of that matters as much as the excitement of EXPECTING. SO for now just begin to anticipate… expect… get excited! I sure am!