May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
It’s the second day of the new year and so far, so good with keeping our resolutions. But unfortunately studies have shown that by the middle of the month most of them will be broken. Why does this happen when we have such determination when we make them? Perhaps the answer is found in our expectations.
We make resolutions because we’re hoping for a different positive outcome to what we are now experiencing. Hope is the confident expectation that something good is going to happen. But when the outcome we are expecting doesn’t happen soon enough, or the way we think it should, we become frustrated and just give up. This says a few things about us, the first being most of us need the virtue of patience, the other is we need to consider our expectations and the timetable to us achieving them. Are our expectations in line with the Word and what God wants for us?
How often do we make plans and never pray seeking the Lord’s counsel and direction. And too often even when we do bother asking, but never wait around for the answer, we’re just off to do the next thing on our list. But what if we followed today’s Scripture, that the God of confident expectations of good is going to happen, will fill us with joy and peace by the power of Holy Spirit. When we choose to trust God and follow His directions, our expectations will won’t be our own. Rather we will see them through His eyes and Holy Spirit will increase our patience to wait for the perfect time for us to see them come to fruition. Expectations are wonderful and not only change, but will transform us when we learn to listen to God for them. Why not try to hope His way this year, we may receive more than we ever expected.
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