Great Expectations ~ pt. 2

Ex·pec·ta·tion

noun

a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future.

Expectations have been on my mind a lot in the last couple months. What kind of expectations do I have, and for whom? I’ve come to see that I expect a lot of people, which I hadn’t realized until I started thinking about expectations more deeply. I have high expectations for nearly everyone in my life, including myself, and I see now that that isn’t fair. It is a rarity that I voice these expectations, and it is even more rare that I speak them to the people they effect. I came across Psalm 62:5 earlier this week and it struck me,

“My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation [is] from Him.”

My expectation for life is that the worst possible outcome is what will happen. I’m such a realist that it often translates to thinking that nothing good is going to happen. But, my expectation in life should be that God’s will is, in fact, the absolute best thing for me. My expectation should be that His plan for me is good. A friend of mine told me once that the will of God is often what we want, because God wants us to be happy. Now I don’t know how true that statement may be, but often I find myself expecting the worst because I think that it will cause me to have to lean on God more and force me to rely on Him in some new way. But when my expectation is that God is always going to give me the bad outcome of a situation, I’m limiting God. I’ve been learning that my expectation for God needs to change and mature, and then I can start tackling my expectations for others and myself.

The expectations people have, are more often than not, stemmed from fear. I have some seriously high expectations in my own life, and I’ve learned that I am setting myself up for failure. I’ve set the bar so high for myself that I am literally terrified of not meeting these expectations. If I’m honest, it’s gotten to the point where my fear has overcome my trust. These last few weeks have been rough, and I am so blessed to have made some new friends, and to check in with old ones, who have given me great advice.

TRUST GOD!

In summary, trade fear for trust, never limit God, and remember, “my expectation is from Him.”