Drop the Expectations

Tuesday, April 28, 2020 Submitted by Lara Cook
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act.  Psalm 37:5

Drop the Expectations

When we lay down our expectations, we open the door for God to do amazing things in our lives. Expectations will keep us from experiencing the blessing of
God working in ways we don’t expect.

What has gone the way you expected it in the last couple of months?  Not much has gone the way I expected it to, and I think most of us can say the same.  Birthdays, Easter, Anniversaries, and all the other things, have not gone off like we expected.  Even with the promise of re-opening our country, some things are still being cancelled, like vacations, mission trips, camps, and

Moms who are homeschooling now – how has it been for you?  Has homeschooling gone as you expected?  Even getting to be home altogether with our families bring all kinds of great expectations in our minds about how it will be, all the fun things we will do, and all the warm fuzzy feelings that go with that.  And then everyone wakes up.  Someone – or more than one of us – gets up on the wrong side of the bed.  Maybe the kids are fighting even before breakfast is served.  It is hard to concentrate with the noise of everyone else home and working. The kids are happy for a while and then they are bored. We get tired of going outside, tired of playing, tired of cleaning, tired of cooking.  

This is not what we expected. None of it.

If we don’t let go of those expectations, we dwell on what is not and miss what is.  And what is, no matter how messy it may seem, is right where you can find God.

It is not just a choice; it is a decision to lay down the expectations.  We don’t ever choose for things to not go the way we planned.  That’s the problem.  Even when I pray sometimes, I expect God to answer my prayer in the way I plan for it to be answered – the way I want things to work out in my life. So, I wait.  I watch.  I wonder why He isn’t answering my prayers when I am looking in the wrong direction.  Not to say that He doesn’t ever answer our prayers exactly the way we want Him to, but sometimes He wants to work a miracle where we don’t believe a miracle is possible.  And He ultimately knows what the very best thing is for us because He sees the whole picture and we don’t.  He does want to give us the desires of our hearts because He loves us so much, but He also wants us to trust Him and sometimes the desires of our hearts are not the best thing for us.  It is hard to let it go and trust.  We think we see the whole picture in our head of how things should be, but there are things we can’t see that He knows.  Wouldn’t you take the very best care of your child’s heart and do everything in your power to keep them from being hurt?  Imagine how much more our Heavenly Father loves us and how He is working to take such good care of our hearts. 

God gives us grace for today.  He gives us one step at a time, never the whole path or even the next step. He desires for us to trust Him and abide in Him.  Lay down your expectations and open your life for Him to bless you in ways you never imagined.

Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves,
for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.  Joshua 3:5