Ever have one of those mornings where God is just speaking to you?  And throughout the entire day, He just keeps confirming it over and over again through the most random ways?  The other day was just like that for me.  He was speaking to me that He will never let me down and He will never walk away from me.  It was powerful.  And that same truth came up as the day progressed.

At first it was an encouraging reminder, then it turned into dread.  Was God saying this to me because something bad was going to happen?  Was He warning me of some unforeseen circumstance that will arise?  Was He cluing me in on a time where I would need to clutch onto this?  And in that moment I realized something was totally off!  Instead of embracing what God has told me, I instantly made it about something bad that was bound to happen.

So often my expectations of God and who He is and what He does is “bad”.  Not that I believe God is bad, but the way I view life is through the lens of my circumstances and past experiences rather than His goodness.  If I say that I believe in a good God and am saved by the Good News of Jesus Christ, then shouldn’t my expectations be good too?  The Bible tells us over and over again that He is good and that He only gives good gifts (James 1:17)!  Why is believing that so hard for me if I am a “believer”?  Instead of saying “uh oh, things are about to turn for the worse…”, what if we started declaring that “uh oh, things are about to turn for my favor”?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand that life isn’t easy.  No one needs to be reminded of that in light of all the circumstances that are happening all over the world.  Yet our relationship should be of faith rather than fear.  Perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18).  If I am loved by God and have faith in Him, shouldn’t hope be the most natural expression of that?  The reality is that not all that we hope for will come to pass on this side of heaven.  Yet an even greater reality is that God has never put those who hope in Him to shame (Psalm 25:3; Isaiah 28:16; 49:23).  There will be pain and loss and unanswered prayers on earth, but a time is coming where all will be reconciled in Heaven.  He has never failed anyone and He won’t start with you.

So whatever you are facing today, remember we serve a good God who is as good as He says He is (Luke 18:19).  We can pervert His goodness, we can downplay His goodness, we can even curse His goodness, but one thing we can’t do is exaggerate His goodness.  Let hope arise as we learn to trust a loving God with all our great expectations for He truly exceeds them all!

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