Trading Your Expectations For Being Expectant
The difference between having “expectations” vs being “expectant”.
Sometimes it’s easy to allow our personal expectations of God to be in the forefront of my mind, instead of simply being expectant of God to show up. Being expectant doesn’t necessarily mean you know what will happen, but you understand that God is who he says he is and will reach your heart exactly how you need. Your personal expectations base God’s presence only off of what you’ve experienced before, but being expectant lets God bring new revelation.
Being expectant of God
With that being said, you might think, “how in the world do I let go of my expectations and instead start being expectant?!”. The truth is, this process looks different for everyone because we all have personal and unique relationships with God. Everyone takes a different route in learning God’s nature and consequently develop different expectations of him. But, being expectant of God is something we can all do because it welcomes him to bring new revelation of his love to us. For example, some expectations might look like thinking God only speaks to us when we do certain things, pray certain prayers, or even sit in a certain place. But, eventually you might stop hearing God clearly when doing these things. This is likely because your expectations have gotten in the way. We must fully be expectant of God, so that we can actually receive more truth from him.
God brings new revelation
God knows what we need because he’s a lover of our hearts, but sometimes our expectations of him aren’t aligned with his character. He simply desires a relationship with us, not a programmed schedule. Imagine if we let our detailed expectations go, and trusted that God can do the impossible? Being expectant of God means we recognize that he’s within our waiting, our questions, and the minor details, but our expectations can keep us from receiving new revelation. Being expectant opens the door for progress within the process. We can exhaust ourselves if we only rely on our expectations. God speaks differently to us as we grow older with him, because our relationship is intended to mature. Spiritual growth requires us to be expectant, even if it looks different than last time.
The letting go of our expectations
The point is, we can always be expectant of God to meet us where we are, but we shouldn’t decide how he’s going to do it. We should be expectant by anticipating God bringing new revelation of himself, instead of giving him a list on how to do it. Often times our expectations are actually innocent, but can easily derail our growing process with God. There are times when he’s trying to show us something new, so that we can go deeper with him. Being expectant can further your relationship with God, rather than sticking to how it’s always been. Remember: God is with us in all things, even if you don’t know what to expect.
What would it look like if you traded up your expectations for being expectant? What doors is God asking you to open so that he can bring new revelation to your situation? Are you letting God reveal more of himself to you, or holding fast to old expectations?
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