Expectation, Expectations, Expected, Expect, Expecting
I believe these words all stir up something different in each one of us. I'm sure it depends on the situation, perhaps on our path or journey, sometimes it depends on our experience.
The Lord uses my drive to work to speak to me I drive a good 25-30 minutes on rural roads that are peaceful and without a lot of distraction. I usually hear him as I am driving across the lake. Something about the water and the sky meeting makes my heart open up, I guess. A couple of weeks ago, I was driving across the lake and I could see the sun starting to peak across the horizon. I was running about 15 minutes late, but as I drove on, I heard the Lord say, "You need to stop and take that photo today." You see, there is a spot in my commute where I have been waiting to stop and take the perfect photo for like over a year! I am always too busy, it's not the right lighting, there's not a good place to pull over, or I didn't have my camera. So, I heard, but kinda just went on my way. I approached "the" spot and it was like the Lord said, "STOP NOW!" All I had was my phone, but it was the photo I had been expecting, waiting for, and it was beautiful! I didn't have time to stop, but I listened. It got my attention. So, I asked the Lord what else He wanted to say this morning. He said, "Before you do anything at the church, I want you to go check on the bluebonnets." Uhhhh?? Ok??? He said, "No, really, before you do ANYTHING!" I walked in the church and straight through the sanctuary and out the side door, straight to the crosses. You may not know this, but in October, the church planted some bluebonnets on the hill under the crosses. We are all very excited to see them spring up, but I didn't even think it was time for bluebonnets. So, when the Lord told me to go look at them, I fully expected to see a field of bluebonnets as I came over the hill. I crossed the pasture and here is what I saw....
To say I was a little disappointed was an understatement. I turned and walked back to the church and He spoke to me once again. He said, "Meridith, you come to me each and every day expecting me to meet you where you are. To walk with you, to move with you, to breathe with you. You come expecting to see great things happen in My name. I want you to have this expectation. It's not wrong to have the expectation because just as you know that you know those seeds are in the ground and they have germinated and are in the process of sprouting, you know that they will come up out of the ground. You expect that, you know that it will happen. However, you don't know WHEN, that will happen. When it does happen, though, and they come out in all their glory, it will be magnificent. What I don't want you to do is place expectations on yourself and others to try and MAKE it happen. Those seeds don't do anything that I didn't place in them to do, just as you were made for a purpose and a plan for such a time as this. Don't saddle yourself with expectations that I didn't place there. Keep expecting me, keep pressing in, and when it's time, it will be glorious!!"
WOAH NELLY! What a freedom we have when we take time to stop, be obedient, and wait on the Lord. It was exactly what my heart needed to hear.
The Bible uses a couple of different definitions for the word expectation.
1. a cord- as an attachment- a measuring cord to bind with (Tiqvah) to collect or bind together (Niphal)
2.To wait, look for, hope, expect, to wait or look eagerly for (Qavah) Expectation, object of hope or confidence (mabbat)
One seems to mean that we are tied to or bound up with expectation, the other tends to bring hope, longing, desire. We can equate it with waiting. You can either be full of dread and fear and absolutely hate the waiting, or you can have joy and hope and a time of learning or rest in the waiting. Expectation can be filled with the same of both. Here, the Lord was saying to me, keep expecting my presence because you KNOW that I am here, you KNOW that I am going to move and do great things, you just may not know when. However, don't tie yourself up in the striving to make something happen. It's not my job to make Him move. It's not my job to conjure up some mood or mystical feeling in worship. I don't want that! That's just creepy. It's not my job to place expectations on myself or on my family to create the perfect outcome. It's my job to point to Jesus and expect Him to work. We want the flowers to spring up in all their glory! Plant the seeds, water in faith, and KNOW that He made them to do what they do.
What are you expecting today? What expectations do you tie yourself up with?
-With a grateful heart,
Meridith
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendorwas dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:28-33 NLT
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart.[b] 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,
“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25
And this is the word that was preached to you.
1 Peter 1:22-25 NIV
18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children,[j] including the new bodies he has promised us.24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope[k] for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)
26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers[l] in harmony with God’s own will. 28 And we know that God causes everything to work together[m] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn[n] among many brothers and sisters.30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
Romans 8:18-30
