Not such a threatening word, is it? Not on the surface. We all have expectations, some good, some bad, some indifferent – some extremely harmful. For example, I expect that when I finish typing this post, I will go take a shower, make breakfast for my kiddos and haul the girls to dance class. These expectations are pretty harmless, and as a mother of four I realize that the shower may not happen, or breakfast might turn into “grab some crackers and we’ll eat later”. Other expectations can be more harmful to us, for example, the expectations that we put on our spouses or our children, to be “who we want them to be”. Or how are lives are going to play out, and how successful we will be. Our expectations are such an easy tool for the enemy to use to take our eyes of the Lord, and look only at the circumstances around us. Ephesians 2:4-7 says
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Notice that it says that God has “raised us up with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”. He’s already done that! I heard a speaker say once, our feet are still on earth, but we are seated in heavenly places. We should be looking down from heaven’s perspective on our circumstances and the expectations we have of them, full of the knowledge that He is working to show us “the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness”.
James 4:13-16 says
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
Surely, there is one thing I have learned and that is, I have no clue what is going to happen tomorrow. I need to remember to acknowledge the Lord in my plans and expectations. “If the Lord wills”…
Things are hard right now. The economy stinks, and political change is looming on the horizon, but it’s OK! God is still on His throne. Have my plans and expectations for this year changed? You bet they have! Will they continue to change throughout this year? Absolutely! But what I need to remember is that God is still on His throne and if I will acknowledge Him (If the Lord wills) He will direct my paths (Prvbs 3:6).