There’s no doubt that in troublesome times, we are shaken in our faith and feel disoriented—What is happening to me? Why is this happening? Why am I stuck in this circumstance? I think we need to admit that much of this is due to faulty expectations about the Christian life. That’s why the teaching in Acts 14:22 and other places are so important, like 2 Tim. 3:12…all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…
On the other hand, isn’t it true that we are typically expecting circumstances to go our way and expecting people to have us as the supreme object of their service?
Furthermore, we are told time and time again by evangelicalism that if we are trying hard enough in the right areas we can make Jesus attractive to the world. When we find out that’s not true, we can be tempted to either alter the message and/or the method OR become convinced the Christianity doesn’t work and that the gospel is impotent in our day and age. Biblical expectations guard us from those destructive mindsets. Paul and Barnabas went around to the churches to specifically teach proper expectations of the Christian life. Yes, we are in a different context, but we desperately need to grasp this as well in order to continue on in the faith.