PERCEIVED EXPECTATIONS

John 7:24  "Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment."

Have you had a good day today?  I pray it was blessed.  This morning as I was reading the Word, spending a little time with the Father, not first thing as it was rushed, had an appointment, but afterwards when there was time to visit with Him. I was thinking of some friends and what was expected of them.  Or rather,  let me say, what is perceived expectation. 

So many of us live under the burden of perceived expectations.  We were raised with the idea that we were to behave just as was expected, without waivering.  First our parents who had the responsibility of bringing up to be accepted into society with grace and love.  They were tasked with the job of making sure we knew how to behave, how to act and how to work hard and be successful.  There is nothing wrong with that, we all do that with our own children as parents want their children to be loved and accepted, and successful.

After childhood, when we are grown, we, most of us, get married and again live under perceived expectations.  Our spouses have certain expectations of us, but to be fair, so do we.  But this still can become a burden as we try to live up to what someone expects of us.  Our jobs, our churches, our friends, all have expectations of us, and we of them.

The worse offender of this however, is ourselves.  We, due to the continued life of expectations, are hardest on ourselves, as we begin to judge ourselves on the quality of how we fulfill these expectations that others have on us and now that we put on ourselves.  What a nightmare we can make for ourselves trying to keep up with this, until sometimes it is only the appearance of ones self while the inner self is just a shell of what it should be.

Thank You, Lord.  This morning the Lord showed me that He has no perceived expectations of me or of you.  He accepts us just as we are, warts and all.  In all our imperfection, He loves us, He accepts us.  Our God does not expect us to be anything other than His creation, and there is nothing that He wants us to be but that.  Just who we are in Him.  We can be tired, we can be silly, we can do or not do, we are still loved by our Father.  There is but one thing He asks of us, He asks us to love Him with all our hearts....that is it.  See, in loving with our whole heart, we will desire to spend as much time with Him as we can, and that delights our Lord so.  When we love the Lord with all our hearts, we will fear Him reverently, and we will follow His commands as that is what you do when you love so much.  So He just asks for His love to be returned.  He expects nothing more as He knows in our love we will give all, in our true, deep love for Him.

The Lord wants us to let go of all the perceived expectations that are hindering us from giving our time to Him.  He wants us to stop being so busy doing what everyone else expects us to do and just give ourselves to Him.  When those around us see how filled with peace and joy we are from our time with the Lord, they will only desire to have what we have, all other expectations gone.  If they are not, the Lord will take care of those things.  Do what the Lord draws you to and He will make all roads straight and smooth.  He will keep you in perfect harmony with the world as you are deep in Him.  He will change your circumstances to harmonize with the place He has set you.  He makes everything come to agreement with His plan for you, for me.

How great is our God.  No expectations of us, just desiring of our love and our devotion to Him.  Thank You Lord, for Your precious love, for Your peace and joy that you freely give us.  With You, we can expect beauty for ashes, joy for sorrow, and peace for unrest.  Our expectations of You will always be true as Your promises are forever.  Precious Lord, my wonderful God, thank You.

03-27-12