The Key to Living with Great Expectations
Are you confident that God cares about you and wants to meet your needs? Do you put your expectations in Him?
I'm amazed sometimes by the Christians who don't really believe that God wants to help them and bless them. For instance, one day when I was shopping at a department store, I struck up a conversation with a woman who was working there. She shared with me that she was a Christian and had attended church for many years. At one point in the conversation, I asked her if she made her income by commission. She told me she did and she was worried that she wouldn't meet her quota.
So I asked her, "Do you pray for God to give you customers and favor with people so they'll come to your area and buy things?"
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She said, "You mean it would be ok to pray about money?"
And she said it like that was something you wouldn't talk to God about. I was stunned! Here this woman had been in church for many years and yet, she didn't have confidence that God cared about her enough to bring people to her area to buy things from her.
The truth is, God cares about everything that concerns you!
It's so important for us to really know this, because if we don't put our hope and expectation in Him, we will spend a lot of our lives disappointed, frustrated and hopeless. And disappointment, frustration and hopelessness will keep us from being really content and satisfied with our lives.
The key here is to understand that our expectation should be in God, not other people or even ourselves. God wants us to have expectations, but we must make sure our expectations are in the right place – in Him.
So, what are you expecting? And who are you expecting to give it to you? Are you going to God with your needs and requests? Sometimes we think we're giving these things to God, but in reality, we're expecting our spouse, kids, boss, friends, the world, or even ourselves, to take care of them. And when it doesn't happen… I'm sure you can relate.
When I realized that God wants me to have great expectations in Him, it was a big breakthrough for me. Before that I was disappointed a lot or I just didn't expect anything. It seemed easier to expect nothing than to be disappointed.
But Ephesians 3:20 tells us that God is able to "do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]" (The Amplified Bible).
Think about it: superabundantly above all we dare ask or think!
I had to stop thinking that God couldn't or wouldn't do anything for me. And you may need to do this too. Whatever is wrong with us or in our lives, it's not big enough to stop God. And He's not expecting you to be perfect – He's looking for your faith!
God has shown me that He would do more for me if I'd just ask Him. I had to stop giving in to the feeling that He'd already done so much I couldn't or shouldn't ask Him for more. And I had to stop agreeing with the lies the devil was throwing at me that I didn't deserve anything from God.
God loves us! And He wants us to trust Him and expect Him to do superabundantly more than we could think to ask, according to His plans and purposes for us.
God is a great God! I want to encourage you to expect great things from Him. And verbalize your expectations. We need to say things like, "Lord, I'm expecting to be led by Your Spirit. I'm expecting to have peace and joy, and I will endure difficulties with a good attitude. I'm expecting You to make me a blessing to others today."
These are great expectations!
