Expectations
Psalms 27:14 says, “Wait for and confidently expect the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for and confidently expect the LORD.”
I remember reading this scripture and hearing messages about expecting God to move, come through, provide, and deliver. There began to be a stirring in my heart which produced a real expectation of God to do miraculous things in my life. I started dreaming big and hoping big. I believed I was hearing God speak things over my life, and I was waiting, hoping, and trusting Him with it all. I had faith he would move, but over time nothing was happening. I started getting stressed and doing everything I could to “take control” (quotes added to signify that we never really have control….or in other words…”you can’t twist God’s arm”).
I was on my way out West when I realized just that – control is an illusion and fighting for it only causes stress in our lives. You really can’t twist God’s arm and you really can’t make things happen on your timeline. My hoping in and expectation of God to do this one thing resulted in my inability to see Him at all when it didn’t happen. But, I remember having this thought one day…
“I don’t want to miss what God’s doing because I’m focused on what I expect Him to do”
…and that was it. My eyes were painfully aware that I had been expectant of a promise, not the Promiser.
Having an expectation of God is not wrong; it’s a command. What I found to be wrong was expecting the details of how and when He would show up and move and what the end result would be.
So how do we expect? With faith, trusting that He is good and loving and never late. And we rest, confident in the Promiser’s character that He is for us and has not forgotten us and He knows what is best. We expect Him to be who He says He is – no matter what it ends up looking like with our human eyes or from our human perspective. And then we thank Him, because His ways our not our ways and His understanding is above our understanding.
