Expectancy, No Expectations
Musings from The Garden
By Peggy Wyar
I was reading a book by a very respected author who made this observation. When we have a strong desire of receiving a particular answer to our prayers, or a strong belief of how someone should act, or how a situation should happen, we have expectations that may or may not be reasonable. She commented that the difference between living with expectancy versus having expectations is where we have placed our trust. If in ourselves and our desires, we can be disappointed. If in God, we can remain in His love no matter the outcome.
The Word of God makes it clear that we are to live in hope, with confidence and complete assurance, that God will do what He says He will do and be all He says that He is on our behalf.
Philippians 1:19-21 ASV “For I know that this shall turn out to my salvation, through your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that in nothing shall I be put to shame, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Psalm 62:5-6 ASV “My soul, wait thou in silence for God only;
For my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation:
He is my high tower; I shall not be moved.”
Job 31:24-25, 28 NIV “If I have put my trust in gold
or said to pure gold, ‘You are my security,’
if I have rejoiced over my great wealth,
the fortune my hands had gained,….
then these also would be sins to be judged,
for I would have been unfaithful to God on high.”
Psalm 147:11 NIV “the Lord delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.”
1 Peter 1:19-21 NIV “but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” (emphasis mine in all these scriptures)
Having hope in God instills in our hearts a joyful expectancy of seeing the goodness of God while we are living on this planet. God loves us and is at work in our lives, but it does not always match what our expectations might be. We pray for a new car and God provides the money to fix our old one. We ask for a spouse and He causes us to wait (and wait). When we finally do get married, it is for a shorter time period than what we expected because of their death. We cry out for healing from pain, and our health challenges to be relieved, and, instead, God chooses to give us daily grace and moment by moment strength to keep moving with Him. We beg for relief from the onslaught of the enemy, and, in place of immediate deliverance, we are given strategies and community to walk through the shadows while hoping for His light to shine more brightly for us.
Expectations of specific outcomes may cause disappointment in God’s goodness if things do not happen according to our plan. Even as Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will, but Yours be done”, so our hearts need to be aligned with the Father’s. We need to foster the perspective that no matter how He chooses to answer us, we will trust Him, even if it’s not the answer we were expecting.
We can choose to live with expectancy; anticipating that our good, compassionate, merciful, trustworthy, faithful, victorious and sovereign Savior, Jesus, is actively pouring out His grace and lavishly loving us every moment of every day. Faith says that we can believe even if we do not yet see the outcome.
In chapter eleven of Hebrews, sometimes called the “Heroes of the Faith chapter”, we read about people who hoped for what they had not yet seen.
Hebrews 11: 13-16 NIV “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
Let’s live in hope. Let’s have faith that believes God. Let’s pursue getting so close to Jesus that we hear His heartbeat and join Him in what He prays for us and for the world. Let’s pray earnestly, with great expectancy that God will answer our prayers, in His time and in His way.