Remember where we left off? “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD. I will be joyful in God my Savior.” When expectations have died and we’ve fought by faith long and hard, we move forward in expectancy. True hope is birthed. The sixth and final key to living in expectancy without expectation: We study, focus, […]
Expectancy without expectation certainly isn’t easy. It’s difficult not only because it’s hard to relinquish things, but also because we are called to pray specifically, asking God for what we need. But we also have limited understanding, and so most of the time we don’t even know what we need. Ever felt confused by this? So […]
One of my favorite life-lesson stories, from May 2008… I’m painfully aware once again that my sense of fairness or justice is far from God’s. I’m painfully aware that God cannot be manipulated. I’m painfully aware that there is no sucker for me today. I’m painfully aware that it’s time to grow up. A few […]
Sometimes the best lessons nearly knock the wind out of us. A simple question from my friend Dawson, more than ten years ago, has forever shaped my perspective of true expectancy… [excerpt from When God Broke My Heart.] That fall proved to be the darkest season I’d experienced so far. Jason had told me that […]
Yesterday we looked at the first side of expectancy, trusting God with something not believing Him for something. I pray those little seeds are taking root in our lives as we begin to discern the difference in our everyday lives. Today, side two: 2. Expectancy is true hope, not “getting our hopes up.” Words are […]
Finally, we come to our blessed main event: Expectancy. The essence of this life of faith is expectancy without expectation. So excited to look at this with you. We talked about Three Particularly difficult types of disappointment (those that are long, those that are not understood, and those which we must bear silently) and saw that […]
So basically we’ve had two pretty down sessions. Maybe you came here with a brave face saying, my life is good, and you feel like I came in and said, “no it’s not! God disappoints us! Admit it! You’re disappointed and full of fear!” Fun huh? Well my point in all that is just we […]
I had the best birthday ever…which totally caught me off guard. You see, I have to admit that for some reason I always find myself feeling a little depressed at birthday time, and when it’s over, even if it was a fun time, I always end up feeling sad. So this year, I started praying […]
“Don’t have expectations.” I’ve heard this, and said this, so many times. It’s an easy-answer that’s true but sometimes difficult to put into practice. We hit on it a little bit in the last post–we experience disappointment, or frustration, joylessness to be sure, when we shift from serving others to being served. Often, when we […]