Expectations

There is nothing wrong with you! You might still have some challenges with your thought patterns, but that is everything there is. There is nothing wrong with your soul and body. In fact there never was. There was a time when our limbs were servants of unrighteousness, but that was due to the deceiver who was in us. God held us responsible for our evilness, but His plan was to redeem His people so that the same limbs could be servants of righteousness on account of that Christ is in every man who has accepted His beloved son. When Paul talks about the flesh and is admonishing us concerning the flesh he is referring to the aforementioned thought patterns which impedes us from seeing our union with God and which prevent our gaze from being upwards.


Our greatest adversary is perhaps expectations. Faulty expectations trigger those thought processes which make us think that we have to change or do more. They uphold the illusion that we have a separate self. Those around us have specific expectations regarding how we are to act and behave. When we fail to live up to their standards they usually let us know, and we begin to wonder if they perhaps are right in their assessments of us. In addition we carry with us a lot of expectations concerning ourselves. We find to our great dismay that we often fall short of those expectations, and we thus easily fall prey to condemnation. Have you noticed that Jesus quite often didn’t live up to other’s expectations either? It might seem as He sometimes rebelled against and challenged those expectations. Hence, you shouldn’t be surprised if Christ in you does the exact same thing today. His plan for us and those He has given us far supersedes those usually short sighted expectations. Everything will find its fulfillment in Him in His time.