Expectation has been on my mind recently as I prepare to leave behind the old and step fearlessly into the unknown.
I always believed I had a healthy relationship with expectations.
They were motivating.
They were good for me.
Weren’t they?
I started looking at the word expectation and by definition expectation is
‘believing that something is going to happen or believing that something should be a certain way.’
Remember my last blog? We need to stop ‘shoulding’ on ourselves? Well here is that word again, should. When I set expectations for myself, I believe that I should be doing or caring about certain things, and if I’m not, then I fill in the blank with shame, guilt, doubt and fear.
Because I didn’t meet the expectation set out before me, ‘what use am I?’
That voice is powerful sometimes. But it’s not all powerful.
The enemy is good at taking small things, like assumptions, and layering them in our heads until they become ultimate things. The Bible talks a lot about expectation, mostly our own unrealistic expectations and then our frustrations, impatience and disbelief when things don’t go our way.
“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” Psalm 19:7
The only thing in life that we should expect is that our God is faithful, full of grace and mercy and loves us beyond our expectations.
With that, I’ve set a goal for myself this upcoming year — to not expect anything.
Now that doesn’t mean that I’m being sour and proud sitting like a cross-armed pessimist, ‘no expectations — no disappointment.‘ Quite the opposite actually.
No expectations — endless possibility.
I don’t want to expect anything from God this year, (and hopefully beyond this year) but be a totally open vessel for how He wants to use me.
Expectation is limiting and God is limitless.
This is a year of freedom — (“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1)
To be set free of worldly expectation and to live in the freedom that Christ has promised us.
