“Expect the best.” This was the motto for my middle school and it seemed corny at the time but there’s some truth to it.
All my life I’ve been told to have low expectations. High standards but low expectations so I don’t get disappointed. And I thought I was protecting myself. I built a wall around my heart to guard it from getting hurt. And it worked, sort of. I numbed myself to the pain and stuffed it down and didn’t fully process it because I didn’t know how to. I hid away part of my heart from God and threw away the key, because I didn’t trust him with that part of my heart. And the tragic thing is that all the areas of my heart that I walled off from Him were the exact areas that needed His healing touch and breath of life and fresh perspective. I was forbidding the Ultimate Healer from doing what He does best. Because I was just trying to survive and because I didn’t know any better. But, also, because I was afraid of what He’d do and how painful it’d be and if He would hurt me even more than I already was. I didn’t let Him into my heart because I didn’t know His heart. And I believed the Enemy’s lies that keeping my guard up and sectioning off my heart and only giving God access to part of it was wise and safe and less painful. And, it was, for a time. Less painful, that is. But, it was akin to putting a bandage over a festering wound, instead of letting it be exposed and debrided so that it could heal and have new growth. My wounds never healed truly so that saying “Time heals all wounds” is inaccurate. God over time heals all wounds. I had wounds from childhood I thought I’d healed from that were still festering and He gently debrided them and I got healing and freedom.
Sooooo, back to expectations. I am learning as God teaches me to have big expectations and to trust that He will deliver on His promises and that He has GOOD things in store for us, more than we can ask or imagine. And, it takes faith and a whole lotta HOPE to maintain big expectations for what God will do, especially in areas of waiting in our life: waiting on a cure/ a spouse/ a child/ a loved one to come to faith/ a job/ fulfillment of a dream/ a house/ a prodigal to come home, etc. It’s almost easier to just give up and surrender to the fact that it can’t and it won’t happen and try to grieve it and move on. But, God asks us to anticipate His goodness and His deliverance on His promises and His answer to the prayer. Every time we don’t see the desired outcome is an INVITATION to renew our faith in Him and to stand on Hope as our anchor. To remind ourselves of His character that never changes, even if our circumstances remain the same. To boldly approach Him in the throne room yet again and ask and declare into existence the thing that we want. Because when we know, deep in our spirit, that our desire is from Him and that what we are asking for, He’s already promised to us, we can boldly declare it out and go ahead and thank Him for it even if we still see no evidence of it in the physical because we know it’s already done in the spiritual. We get the opportunity, every time our answered prayer isn’t fulfilled yet, to partner with God to let it be so on earth as it already is in heaven. We are His Ambassadors on earth and He chooses us to partner with Him to manifest Heaven on earth.
It’s so so hard, my friend. To continuously pray for the thing and trust He will deliver in His way and His timing. But, it’s a gift to have unmet desires from God in our hearts because it keeps us coming back to Him, as our Provider and our Sustainer when things don’t turn out how we want or when we want. He isn’t trying to torture us. He knows that His timing is best and that the right thing at the wrong time is the wrong thing. And He’s always using everything for our good. He wastes nothing. So every unfulfilled promise is an opportunity to lean on Him as our strength and draw near to Him and let Him guide us and teach us and use the trial to mold us and make us more like Him, like our truest self. He’s challenging me to have big expectations of what He will do in my life and how He’ll answer my prayers and deliver on the things He’s specifically promised to me. And to come sit at His feet, especially when I’m feeling: impatient/ hopeless/ frustrated/ confused/ overwhelmed and let Him renew my perspective and open my eyes to see the goodness in the waiting and His hand in everything and to be filled with so much faith that I go ahead and thank Him for the thing that’s coming and partner with Him to manifest it on earth.
That I am so sure of a cure for my ailment that I declare: “Thank you Lord that I am CURED.”
That I’m so confident of the new job He will give to me that I say: “Thank you Jesus for my new JOB where I get to love on your people daily and watch you provide for my every need.”
That I’m so convinced I’ll be a wife one day that I say: “Thank you that I am a WIFE. And thank you for my amazing man of God husband who you’re preparing even now for our union.”
Having high expectations is hard because we feel let down when things don’t happen how we’d choose it. But, it’s essential to our faith journey. We must bravely let God into the places of our hearts where bitterness/ envy/ anger/ frustration/ lack of hope, etc have taken root so that He can heal our hearts and fill us with hope and anticipation for all the goodness He will continue to pour on us and so that we can partner with Him in faith so that His Kingdom does come on earth as it is in heaven in our individual and corporate lives.
Take heart, my friend! We have hope!
Romans 5:5
“and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Ephesians 3:20-21
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Romans 15:13
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
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