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I had a sermon lesson during a walk today. A walk with me and God. Oh, and my dog. I talk to my dog, Loki, all the time on our walks. But sometimes, like today, I was reflecting and talking to God. Praying and reflecting. Loki was just my loyal side kick.
You see, I am one that believes sermons can be taught anywhere, at any time and sometimes by the oddest circumstances. Sometimes lessons are taught with just you and God working things out, being convicted or taught by the Holy Spirit, sometimes through people that you wouldn’t even think would be used to teach you, sometimes children, or moments that are powerful, like an “ah-ha” moment that changes your perspective that you didn’t even know you needed changing, or in church, the traditional way. Possibilities of lessons in our life that we can learn from are plenty!
Perhaps the main ingredients needed are open hearts, a willingness to learn, seeing different perspectives, and humility to know we will only reach perfection when we go home to heaven and be in His full presence.
So, in my sermon lesson today, God and I were having a conversation about expectations.
Expectation meaning in the dictionary is explained as …….
ex·pec·ta·tion
[ˌekspekˈtāSH(ə)n]
NOUN
1. a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future:
Ok. We are going to unpack this a bit. I was hearing a lot of expectations from people recently and with Christmas season and New Year season upon us, I know many have increased expectations with the holidays, gift, how family gatherings will go, etc. etc. etc.
I also heard a lot of expectations that were not met. I mean a lot of them as well as the emotions that come along with unmet expectations.
So, it got me reflecting on expectations and what they do in our daily life. In our work life, home life, relationships, and even expectations that we place on ourself.
Expectations can be realistic and quite often, they can become unrealistic. Expectations themselves are not bad and doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have any. They can be conscious, and we know exactly what we are expecting. They can be subconscious and when they are not met, we can become very unsatisfied, angry, frustrated. How about disappointed or hurt? Oh, how about expectations that are on ourselves and when we don’t meet them, we become very down on ourself, and reflect it in our self-talk?
In marriage, expectations can be placed on our spouse of how something should go, what we need and how it should be met, expectation of how our spouse should act in a certain circumstance but not communicated and when it isn’t met, our spouse doesn’t even know what was expected in the first place. Come on. We have all been there in some type of way with some type of relationship.
Expectations can be too high. Too low. There can be too many. Unrealistic or realistic.
Important thing is we know ourselves, that we reflect on our expectations that may be conscious or subconscious and affecting our lives and to give them to God to have His way with our expectations and humility to give them up if they are an obstacle in our faith walk. I will leave that truth right there and you can do with it as you desire.
Here comes the butterfly thought of the Holy Spirit during my walk.
He whispered to me that there are some expectations we can have, should have, hold on to, have faith in and continuously live in hope of and here are just a few……
The expectations that :
· God will meet our needs and meet you where you are at as you open your heart,
· He will transform us as we allow,
· That life will give us troubles, but He will make a way
· You will never be alone when you call upon His name.
· You have a future both in this life and in eternity when you place your faith in Him
· Jesus will return.
Now those are some beautiful expectations to hold on and may His Word lead you into expectations that are best for you in your life.
With Love,
Kelly Savage