When God Shows Up—But Not How You Expected

There are moments in our walk with God where what He’s doing doesn’t look like what we thought it would. Not because He isn’t moving—but because we’ve already formed an expectation of how He should move. And when He shows up differently, it can feel like confusion…when in reality, it’s revelation. Because God has never been committed to our expectations—He’s committed to His purpose.

We see this clearly when Jesus entered Jerusalem in Luke 19. Jerusalem wasn’t just any city. It was the spiritual center—the place where God’s presence met His people. It was the city connected to King David, who established his throne there and brought the Ark of the Covenant back into its midst. This was the place that represented nearness to God. So when Jesus came riding in, the people had an expectation. They thought they understood what His arrival meant. They were looking for a certain kind of King…a certain kind of deliverance.

But God was doing something deeper than what they could see.

The Lamb Before the King

Long before that moment, God had already established a pattern. In Exodus 12 (NLT), during the first Passover, God gave Israel precise instructions: “Each family must choose a lamb… The animal you select must be a one-year-old male, either a sheep or a goat, with no defects.” This wasn’t just a ritual—it was a revelation. God was showing them that deliverance would come through a spotless lamb. That covering would come through sacrifice. That restoration would require something pure to stand in place of what was broken.

Romans 5:8 (NLT) says, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” God didn’t leave this open to interpretation. He set it in motion with precision and intention—like He was placing a final period on His unlimited, unconditional love for us, settling it once and for all. When Jesus said in John 19:30 (NLT), “It is finished,” it wasn’t just the end of suffering—it was the confirmation of a love that could never be questioned again. Yet in that moment, they didn’t fully understand what they were witnessing.

When Sin Broke What God Created

As Romans 5:12 (NLT) tells us, “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.” Humanity chose sin. We chose to be ruled by the flesh—by whatever feels good to it—instead of remaining aligned with God. And when Adam sinned, the connection— the very life of God within him was lost, and with it, his fellowship with God. The order our Heavenly Father originally established was broken.

We would have remained in that state—separated, disconnected, trying to live without what we were created to depend on—if Jesus had not come. That’s why understanding Jesus is not optional. It’s everything. Because He didn’t just come to teach. He came to restore what was lost.

The Moment It Was Revealed

When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he didn’t introduce Him as a teacher, or even as a King first. He said in John 1:29 (NLT), “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” That statement reaches all the way back to Exodus—to the lamb without defect, to God’s original pattern. Jesus didn’t just come into Jerusalem as a King; He came as the Lamb. And that’s where many missed Him, because they were looking for power—but God sent sacrifice. They were looking for dominance—but God brought restoration. They were looking for something that would change their circumstances—but God sent Someone who would restore their fellowship.

Don’t Miss Him Because of Expectation

If we’re honest, we’ve all done it—we’ve already decided how God should move, how He should answer, what it should look like when He shows up. And when it doesn’t match what we had in mind, we hesitate. We question. We wonder if He’s even there. But what if He is…just not in the form you expected? What if the answer you’ve been waiting for doesn’t come as breakthrough, but as alignment? Not as immediate change, but as something deeper—restoration at the root? Because God will always prioritize what’s eternal over what feels urgent, and if we’re only looking for what’s visible, we’ll miss what’s actually happening.

And this is where everything gels. Jesus Christ didn’t come to fix moments—He came to restore your relationship with the Father. He is the Lamb who bore what you could never carry and paid what you could never repay. Through Him, what was broken was made whole, and what was separated was brought back into fellowship. This is not surface-level. This is the depth of the cross and the fullness of what it secured for you.  So when God shows up, don’t rush past Him because it doesn’t look like what you expected. Because the move of God that you need in your life may not look flashy— it may come in a way that calls for humility, surrender, and deeper reverence for the Lamb. ■

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

“When God Shows Up—But Not How You Expected”, written for Blessing Beads and More© 2026. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.