I had no intentions of writing another post this week, however, when the Holy Spirit gives me nudges, my brain goes into overdrive until I type.  As I share with you, Sister is sitting in the hospital receiving another chemotherapy treatment.  (Yay!)  However, the dose was dropped this week as some of her liver function levels were higher than they should be.  This was not what we wanted to hear or happen.  Why is it when things don’t go the way we planned we get discourage?  EXPECTATIONS!  William Shakespeare said, “Expectation is the root of all headache.”  I know I am not the only one out there that has been disgruntled at the fact that something did not turn out the way I thought it should.  I’m not saying all expectations are bad…just the ones we wrongly conceive.  For example,  I expected I would marry, have children, and live on a farm.  God’s plan: I would marry, have a miscarriage, be unable to have any biological children, live in the country surrounded by farmland, and bring a young lady into our home to call our own.  My expectations fell short and because I had lost sight of reality, I grumbled, I was angry, I was depressed.  At the time, I was blind, but when I look at the big picture, God’s plans were full of great expectations – one’s that brought Him so much glory.  I think this picture explains everything:

The question was asked, why when things seemed to be progressing so well did we have a bad week?  What went wrong?  I asked myself these same things when beginning medication for my depression.  I fully believe God wants to remind us that we must watch that we are not putting all our hope and trust in doctors, medicine, research, etc.  I believe He is asking, “Will you still trust Me completely?” and “Will you still praise Me no matter the results?”  It is so easy to be grateful and trusting when things are going the way we want.  You see, His expectations are so much better than ours.

I hope you are ready for a barrage of scripture.  At this time I have references scattered all over my page – reminds me of my room when I was growing up…I always knew where everything was.  First off, Psalm 5:3 says, “At daybreak, Lord, You hear my voice;
at daybreak I plead my case to You and watch expectantly.”  It doesn’t say, “I tell You {God} how things should go and watch expectantly for You {God} to do them.”  I like how Charles H. Spurgeon put it, “Let not our prayers and praises be the flashes of a hot and hasty brain, but the steady burning of a well-kindled fire. But, furthermore, do we not forget to watch the result of our supplications? We are like the ostrich, which lays her eggs and looks not for her young. We sow the seed, and are too idle to seek a harvest. How can we expect the Lord to open the windows of his grace, and pour us out a blessing, if we will not open the windows of expectation and look up for the promised favour? Let holy preparation link hands with patient expectation, and we shall have far larger answers to our prayers.”  Our expectations each and every should be focused on our great God, Yahweh, Jehovah-Jireh.  He should be our expectation!  (“My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.” Psalm 62:5)  What is He going to do for us, in us and through us for His glory.  He tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.  For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”  And  in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Looking upward does not disappoint.  Romans 5:2-5 says, “We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.  This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

In terms of the question posed, “Will we still praise God whatever the outcome, situation, or circumstance?”  I submit the following verses:

• “Rejoice always!  Pray constantly.  Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
• “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.” (Hebrews 13:15)
• “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
  My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad.
  Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.” (Psalm 34:1-3)
• “Why am I so depressed?  Why this turmoil within me?  Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God.  The Lord will send His faithful love by day; His song will be with me in the night—a prayer to the God of my life.” (Psalm 42:5,8)
• “My lips will glorify You because Your faithful love is better than life.  So I will praise You as long as I live; at Your name, I will lift up my hands.” (Psalm 63:3-4)

I believe the following verses help us with the question, “Will we still trust God whatever the outcome, situation, or circumstance?”

• “I wait for Yahweh; I wait and put my hope in His word.” (Psalm 130:5)
• “I say: The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in Him.  The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.” (Lamentations 3:24-25)
• “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3)
• “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
• “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

Another reason why our expectations fail is so we can be used to relate to others going through similar experiences we are or have.  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)  One thing I want to make clear, having expectations is not a sin.  As Christians, our highest of expectations is to one day soon meet our Lord and Saviour…to be whisked away to Heaven where we will spend eternity.  “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)  This is a dream/hope that will far exceed our expectations!  The problem with expectations exists when we take our eyes off Christ.  Let’s be real, our expectations don’t usually include struggles.  However, all the little details we leave out, all the messy things we may go through, God uses to make a beautiful masterpiece. All our wishes, dreams, and plans should all be taken captive to the Lord and we need to watch and wait with great expectation at what He will do with them all.  You may just find that He has something even more abundant planned.  “Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20)   

P.S. His “stories” will ALWAYS end in “Happily Ever After”.