(Psa 62:5) My soul, wait silently for God alone, For my expectation is from Him.
Do you ever feel people expect too much of you? I mean you try to please them, but you have this constant sense of falling short in their eyes? So, you try to work a little harder because you really want to make them happy. But it’s all to no avail. The more you try, the more they seem to be even more displeased and demanding.
Here’s another question for you. Do you ever expect too much from yourself? Are you your own worse enemy? Do you set your goals so high that even an Olympic track star couldn’t reach over the bar?
Now let’s look at it from the bright side. You want to do well and achieve certain goals. That’s good. You are diligent and industrious. That’s complimentary. You want to do right and serve the Lord in all you do. That’s to your credit. But then why are you caving under the pressure of everyone’s great expectations?
Galatians 2:20 emphasizes the fact that it’s not what you can do for God, it’s what He wants to do through you. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Our goal in the Christian life is to please God. Man will never be satisfied. He is constantly striving and laboring under the heavy load of sin and its consequences. But the believer can be the achiever because he has a power that is beyond him and yet in him. It’s living life in the dynamic of the Holy Spirit and therefore accomplishing the expectations God has set for us, not what we or others have set for us. (Acts 1:8)
Let the Lord free you from those great expectations. You were never meant to bear such burdens. You were meant to bear fruit for Him. That’s all He expects from your life (Isa 5:2). Then as you live for Jesus, watch all the goals you will attain for His glory!
(Psa 145:15) The eyes of all look expectantly to You, And You give them their food in due season.
(Mat 6:33) "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
(1 Thes 4:1) . . . just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God.
Louie