What Did You Expect?

It’s a funny thing expectation. You know the saying “don’t get your hopes up?” Well, my question is: why not get your hopes up? As long as your hopes are in right One it’s okay to expect BIG THINGS from a BIG GOD!

Below is an expert from the study I am doing on the book of Nehemiah and just a week ago, I guess, I read what you see below one morning, and it lite the fire of expectation in my heart to believe God for an amazing weekend! It’s okay to be excited, and expectant! I think sometimes we need to be reminded that it's okay to have expectations! 

 Monday morning before I hit the road to head back to the ATL I sat over a cup of coffee, with my now soul sister Meagan, and read this to her. She and I just laughed and said “Well, that was prophesying”, because it just so perfectly described the weekend that we had just had and were at the moment recovering from. God answered so many prayers. Sometimes I think we are afraid to get our hopes up because of our hopes are in the wrong things. But, if we pour out our hearts before the Lord and trust Him that HIS WILL (let that settle on you…HIS WILL, will be accomplished), believe Him and place our hopes and expectation in Him…we will not be let down! I was talking with a friend Saturday afternoon and he just shared with me how everyone at the conference had prayed and prayed for the event and for God to move and then when He does they seemed surprised. He simply said "what did you expect?" 

I have no words to describe how amazing this past weekend was in Starke, Florida. When I say that it was a weekend full of answered prayer left and right…I think that would be putting it lightly. The whole weekend was nothing but moment after moment of the Holy Spirit moving!! I know my prayer, personally for the girls, was that not one girl would walk out those doors not knowing Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. God is so good! As long as our hopes are in Jesus…we can’t go wrong!

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“The Joy of the LORD is my strength…” Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV)

It is an extraordinary encouragement to remember that God loves celebration, community, feasting, and lightness of heart, especially when it comes directly connected to Him and His grace in our lives.

This morning I had coffee with my friend April because we were meeting to pray about a trip several of my family and friends are about to take to one of our favorite places overseas. Somewhat perplexed, she kept saying, “I’m just so joyful about this trip. I have so much expectation. I’ve awakened every day this week so excited.”

Then she’d say, “I wonder what all THIS is about.” As if we had to dissect this thing called joy, like it was a foreign bug on the science table none of us had ever seen before. Like we had to explain its presence or make an excuse for it. Finally I said,  “You know what? You’ve got joy because this is going to be a ridiculously awesome trip! Our friends will be there, our family will be there, we’re going to be in a beautiful part of the world, we’re going to eat well, we’re going to talk about God, we’re gonna laugh our heads off. Good. You’ve got joy. It’s what you SHOULD have!”


Excerpt from: [Minster,Kelly. Nehemiah: A Heart That Can Break. 2012. Lifeway Press]