Expect God without Expectations

From the Heart of Dr. Kristi-

One of the reasons I love to go to Shell Island is to look for sand dollars. They are my favorite shell. I am always amazed when I find one that is complete because they can be so brittle when they dry up. I feel like a kid at Christmas waiting to see what presents are under the tree. One trip to Shell Island was a great disappointment. There were no sand dollars. Not even one! I was shocked as I never imagined that this day would have come. I kept looking but finally had to give up.

At the end of this scavenger hunt, I initiated a conversation with the Lord. He began to speak to my heart and conviction gripped my soul.  I often go into situations with my own expectations of what I want things to look like or how I want them to turn out- like finding sand dollar shells.  Do you do that? Do you face circumstances with the ideal outcome that will minimize your uncomfortableness and maximize your benefit? I think that’s human nature. However, the Lord wants you and I to come to Him and face situations expecting Him to show up for us, but without expectations. We can trust the Lord to take care of us without us telling Him how to do that. Our prayers go something like this, “Lord open the door for this specific job.” Now that’s not a wrong prayer, but do we become disappointed if what we want doesn’t happen?

I don’t know about you, but my own expectations of how I thought the Lord should have moved caused heartache and brokenness in my own life. I became caught up in what I thought would happen instead of trusting Him to work things out in His way and His timing. He had to heal my wounded soul.

In that moment on the beach, my mind recalled Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

We have to know that God has a plan for each one of us and His ways and thoughts are higher than ours. He knows what lies ahead. So I encourage you today to expect God to take care of you. Expect God to work things out for your good. Only this must be done without expectations of what you think or want it to look like. Who knows, maybe the Lord wants to do a new thing in your life.

Even though I did not find any sand dollar shells that day, I was reminded of a powerful lesson. I learned to expect the Lord to speak to my heart, but it might be different that what I expected.

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