I had a lot of goals for this week. I had a lot of plans for this Summer.
I’ve had a lot of expectations for my life.
And to be honest, not many of those goals and plans have worked out the way I imagined. Not many of my expectations have been met.
This week, it all came crashing down on me. I realized I was beginning to doubt Gods goodness because the hopes and expectations I had for my life weren’t coming to fruition. Although I’ve sang the song “I surrender all” probably 500 times, and although I’ve prayed extensively about my future, I was still holding onto it. I was still believing the lie that my ways are better than Gods ways. I was still hoping outside of Gods perfect will.
Because that’s the thing–
I’VE had goals. I’VE had expectations. I’VE had plans.
It’s not wrong to have hopes and dreams.
Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”
God wants us to live in joyful expectation. He wants us to desire to have good things and do good things. Those who don’t dream have lost their passion and their zeal for life. Their hearts are sick.
But what happens when those dreams don’t come true? What happens when those expectations aren’t met?
This is what I’ve been thinking through and struggling with the last few weeks. But as I’ve searched the scripture and sought after God, the truth has started pouring over me like a cool spring rain.
It’s as if God has been whispering to my confused and anxious heart, so kindly as he always does, “Emily, I’m not going to meet your expectations. I’m going to exceed them.”
To be honest, at times Gods plans seem at odds with what I think needs to happen to accomplish a goal. And I’m not the only one who has thought this way. The Israelite’s had great expectations for the coming of the Messiah that were basically in complete contrast to what God had planned. As Matthew Henry says,
“It was expected that his ancestry would be very great and noble. He was to be the Son of David, but he sprang out of this royal and illustrious family when it was reduced and sunk, and Joseph was but a poor carpenter. It was expected that he should make a public entry, and come in pomp with recognition; but instead of that, he grew up before God, not before men. He grew up like a tender shoot, silently and invisibly, as the grain grows up, and we know not how. It was expected that he should have some uncommon beauty in his face and person, which should charm the eye, attract the heart, and raise the expectations of all who saw him. But there was nothing of this kind in him; not that he was deformed or misshapen, but he had no beauty or majesty, nothing extraordinary, which one might have thought to meet in an incarnate deity….His gospel is preached, not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but with all plainness. It was expected that he should live a pleasant life, which would have invited all sorts to him; but, on the contrary, he was a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. His condition was, on many accounts, sorrowful. He was unsettled, had nowhere to lay his head, lived on alms, was opposed and menaced, and endured the opposition of sinners against himself.”
Jesus didn’t fit into the Isrealite’s Messiah-box. In a way, you could say he didn’t live up to their expectations. He didn’t come with an army. He wasn’t an intense political leader. He wasn’t born into wealth and prestige. He didn’t wear purple robes and a crown.
He was born into an animals feeding trough. He was the servant of all. He was a man of sorrows. He forgave when he shouldn’t have and loved when it was impossible. He performed miracles for the unclean and the undeserving, and the height of his ministry was death.
Not the Messiah the Israelite’s had hoped for, dreamed of, and expected. But the Messiah we all desperately needed.
You and I have hopes too. But God’s plans outweigh them. We have ideals and dreams, but his ways surpass them. We have great expectations, but God exceeds them. Not the way we might imagine. But the way that is perfect for us.
” For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
-Jeremiah 29:11
“I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has began a good work in you will be faithful to perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 1:6
“Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. “
-Proverbs 23:18
” And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” -2 Corinthians 9:8
“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 4:19
When I read those verses, I have to ask myself, do I believe that? Do I believe God will supply my every need? Do I believe he is able to make all grace abound to me? Do I believe he has plans to give me a future and a hope?
Because if I had true faith in my Father, I wouldn’t doubt his ways. If I had full trust in him, I wouldn’t feel let down when his plans are different than my own.
When I was a kid, and my family went on road-trips, I didn’t question what route my Dad took. I wasn’t confused when he got off the interstate, I didn’t freak out when he started driving slower, or going faster. It wasn’t up to me whether he stopped at the gas station or passed the car on his right, because I wasn’t the one driving. That was Dad’s job. I just slept in the back-seat and trusted we’d arrive at our destination in one piece.
And that is what God is teaching me to do with him too. He’s the one controlling my life, and if I trust he’ll get me to my destination, the speed-bumps and the curves in the road don’t really matter.
What expectations do you have for your life that aren’t being met, or aren’t being met in the way you’d imagined? Have you truly surrendered those expectations to the Lord? Do you trust his perfect and steadfast plans, even when they look anything but perfect and steadfast?
Let me encourage you, keep drawing closer to the Lord. Surrender your hopes and your dreams to him. Keep trusting him. Delight yourself in him and He will give you the desires of your heart; literally the desires that HE gives you, because you are delighting yourself in him.
The Isrealite’s wanted a Jesus with an army and a sword and influence and power, but God knew we needed a Jesus with nail pierced hands, who ate with sinners and healed lepers, and loved without condition.
He knows what is best for you. His plans are good.
His ways are perfect.
Truly, God doesn’t want to meet your expectations.
He wants to exceed them
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” -Ephesians 3:16-21
