Proverbs 23: 18 (NIV)

  ¹⁷ Do not let your heart envy sinners,
but always be zealous for the fear of the Lord.¹⁸ There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.

If I had to look back over my life and even examine myself currently I would say like shakspeare that expectation was the root of all my heartaches”…but how do we live a life without expectation?

Wouldn’t that be a life full of uncertainty and hopelessness? Just like the widow of Zerapheth a lot of us are just waiting to eat the last fruits of our labour and then die…….. but how can we just believe that this is all that God has for us?

There must be more to life than this…. 

If this was all there was to life why bother to even go on

The hardest thing for a Christian to do is to stand on their faith in God when life is not meeting their expectation.

A popular myth of Christianity says once we come to Jesus we’ll never have a problem. But Jesus Himself reminds us that God causes the Sun to shine on the unjust and the rain to fall on the faithful.(Matthew 5:45)

And while we can accept that intellectually, it’s hard to live with that reality when the one in the rain is you…or me

A philosopher said this “there are two ways to be happy: improve your reality or lower your expectations.” a lot of us take the easier route of either lowering our expectations or worst yet getting rid of it all together.

I MEAN LETS BE HONEST ITS HARD to sing songs of praise when all our bills are not paid, when our spouses disappoint us, or when our bodies are racked with ailments.

Often when life doesn’t meet expectations, it disrupts our relationship with God.

The bible is full of examples of people who broke at the point where life wasn’t meeting their expectation.

Elijah ran and hid himself in a cave, and asked God to take away his life , Jeremiah got mad with God and said that he wasn’t going to preach anymore and even when David told us to wait on the Lord and be of Good courage.

He was speaking from a place of frustration and impatience but he knew the formula for success alongside faith was his expectation!

The word WAIT in the Old Testament means “to maintain an earnest expectation.” Psalms 125;1 says that Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever.”   We worship a consistent God one who does not change despite our disobedient and wicked ways .

God himself said that ” I am the lord thy God and I change not so you sons of Jacob are not consumed”(Malachi 3;6 ) So we must then decide that we are not going to allow lifes circumstances to change our attitude towards God.

Regardless of where the trouble came from, there’s only one person who can fix your problems. Tell Jesus, and watch Him make a way out of no way. When we maintain our expectation we allow Gods powers to manifest.

Isaiah 43:19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Something is about to happen…….you must become a slave to hope and expectation!!!!!!!