Eternal Expectations

“My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him."

WHAT DOES GOD THINK? What does He expect of me? These are two questions I do not always default to in my thinking. I want to want what He wants, but sometimes my wants get in the way and cause me to get off course. However, it is the Lord’s expectations that my soul craves for deep down. A soul is never satisfied until its expectations exceed earth. So how can we create expectations that lead our soul into an eternal perspective?

Soul care comes with the price of time, transparency, and truthfulness. Our soul will shrivel for lack of attention, or it will come alive with contemplation on Christ and honesty with ourselves. A busy, breakneck schedule without breaks for living only brings on spiritual fatigue. Without prayer to pace us, our decisions become earthbound and less wise.

Paul describes the tension: “I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirt of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:18-21).

It is in waiting on God that we come to understand His expectations. We acquiesce to the Almight’s outlook when we patiently sit at His footstool by faith. The soul rests between human comprehension and quiet unconsciousness, but it is in intimacy with our Maker that He enlivens our imagination. Eternal expectations engage the soul unleashed by belief. It is here that we come to expect what Christ expects.

Are you disappointed by another’s failure to meet your expectations? Probably, so shift your desires for fulfillment to Jesus, and He will not let you down. We need expectations of others, but only as they are filtered by faith into what our heavenly Father wants. Trust them with Him, and He will bring about His desired results. Eternal expectations extend our hope to heaven and the reward of waiting on God. So stay faithful to find Him first.

“Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God” (1 Chronicles 22:19).

Have my expectations been filtered by the eternal? What does God expect of me now?