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A Public Confession.
I appealled to a sister of mine for financial help. She sent me 5m. Then I went to bless a building project for someone I also take as father, he sent 500k for fuel after the exercise. I was thrilled, excited and visibly happy. I felt it was too much because I didn't use fuel of 5k for the entire journey.
I was honestly and sincerely grateful to my sister who dashed me a whooping 5m but wasn't excited or happy that much, but here was i literally jumping to high heavens for 500k. When I settled down, I reflected on the whole thing. Why wasn't I as happy or as excited with 5M as I was with 500k? Logically, I should be more excited and happier with 5M than 500k. It wasn't ingratitude. I expressed my heartfelt gratitude to my sister and I truly was grateful. So it wasn't ingratitude, ingratitude is an attitude, excitement is a feeling,
The answer is EXPECTATION. I EXPECTED more from my sister and had little or no Expectation from the man that gave me 500k. Notice that I didn't do nothing for my sister, she owes me nothing. I did something for the man and he owes me appreciation, no matter the form it comes. Yet the discrepancy in feeling happened. Expectations lead to entitlement and both are cancers.
Many of us are like that. Many are like me in many ways, even in our relationship with God, that's why I want to share this with you. Feelings are true but not the truth. How I feel is true, but how I feel is not the truth. We must learn to subject our feelings to analysis and reflections. Here are some advices:
1. Make your expectations realistic. I won't say reduce them or increase them. The cliche is "reduce your expectations" and that's fine by me still. Do not have expectations from things beyond your own control. Expectations lead to entitlement, both horizontally( while dealing with earthly beings) and vertically(dealing with God). It is the cause of anger, frustrations, ingratitude, disillusionment and delusions.
2. Faith is not expectations and vice versa. I have been saying this for some time and hopefully some day y'all will grasp it. Let's take a look at Shedrach, Meshach and Abednego(S.M.A)before the fiery furnace. They had faith but not expectation. If they had expectation, they would have said "God will definitely and unfailingly save us from your fire, we serve the living God". And everything in their mind would be that God will save them from the fire.
The opposite outcome will be totally unthinkable, unacceptable and irreconcilable with their concept of God, it will be an intractable dilemma, an evil to be avoided by all means. That's expectation. When that opposite happens, those who think Iike them will be in dilemma and totally bamboozled if not dejected. But notice that S,M and A didn't pray for deliverance, they had faith not expectation. They said: "we know that God can save us, but even if he will not, we will not bow down to your idol". That's the confession of faith.
Think same of Daniel before he was thrown into the lions den. Then think of Stephen as he was stoned to death. Peter in the prison. Paul and Silas in the dungeon. They all had faith in God and not expectations.
When Habb 2:4 says: "the righteous shall live by faith", this is it. That's same thing as Jesus saying man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. There is a subtle replacement of Faith with expectations among believers today.
Can someone receive a miracle without expectations? Yes. Can someone fail to receive a miracle even with expectations? Most certainly yes, that is exactly the fate of the miracle seekers today, they don't get nothing, what their prophets do is heighten their expectations all the time and they get addicted to it. Those who break lose eventually become disillusioned or rebels against the Faith they once proclaimed. Can we have faith without expectations and vice versa? Absolutely yes.
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