Set a date with the Lord. Yes that is right. Everything we do in life happens at determined times. Yes there are some surprises but basically we set our alarm clocks in order to keep appointments. We even do that for church. So we decide we are going to meet with the Lord at certain preplanned times such as Sunday morning church service. We fully expect(hopefully this is your expectation) to meet with the Lord on Sunday morning and have some kind of spiritual encounter. And we are not disappointed.
So why not set times to meet with the Lord without the guilt of thinking we should not and cannot do that. Do we think we will offend the Lord if we desire to meet with Him at certain times? When you sit down to read or pray at specific preset times in your life do you expect God to accompany you? Of course we do. Well then maybe we need to raise our level of expectation in life. Maybe we need to bring future hope of God meeting our needs or showing himself to us into the present.
I think too many times we are looking into the future and expecting some day for things to happen. We should begin to believe in a God that is NOW present. Not future tense. A God that says things to us like He did to Zachaeus in the gospels, "today I will eat at your house". We need to know that faith is NOW.
Sure we can't demand of God to do things. We ask. But we need to ask believing He will, He wants to, and He can. Expecting the Lord to do something in the future is fine. But we can also begin to expect an outpouring of His grace today. Didn't He say today is the day of salvation?? Does that mean when we come to the Lord to receive salvation that He will save us someday? No it means He will save us NOW. How cool is that?
We do not get saved at some future time but in the same moment we ask. Yes I know that many times we need to pray and believe patiently until the answer comes. But even then we are to believe it happens before we ever see it. Right? Check out Mark 11:23-25. That is what we are told to do. So don't believe everything is for tomorrow. Begin to open your ears to hear Him say "today I will come to you", "today is the day".