What do these three things look like in our lives? And how do they affect us?
In the first, you hope. In the second, you envision. In the last, you trust.
Anticipation is looking forward to something that is set to happen in the future. It’s sitting on the edge of your seat. It’s watching with eyes wide open, waiting for the scene in front of you to unfold. It’s that feeling you get right before you do something and you don’t know how it will go, but you’re optimistic and excited.
The vein of anticipation is filled with hope. It rushes through you with joy, excitement, and a tinge of nervousness. Anticipation involves waiting to see: and the time spent in anticipation seems to be longer than it actually ever is. This is because you are holding on to see what will happen, and until it does, you feel bottled -on the brink of bursting- with the anticipation that fills you until it can be released. And once your anticipation is exhaled, as Ana Monnar said, “Anticipation is sometimes more exciting than actual events.”
Anticipation is what you might feel in that moment before your first kiss, when someone looks into your eyes and you read theirs. Or the days leading up to an event you can hardly wait to be at. It’s what you feel in the last seconds of a possibly game-changing play in a sports game. Anticipation happens as you wait in the airport, about to see and embrace someone you’ve missed dearly. Anticipation is not the unfolding, but the moment before that fills you with hope and excitement.
Anticipation is different from expectation. With expectation, you have a picture, an idea, a set standard you are holding in your mind that you expect to happen. Your expectations can be very detailed, and are created in your mind by your own reasoning. You have a specific idea of what you want or envision, and while you know it could happen differently, it’s still what you hope for. Your expectations can be negative or positive. They can be realistic or idealistic. Most of the time (in my experience), expectations are not exactly met; they are either let down or exceeded.
You can work toward your expectations, you can fuel them. Our actions often are heavily influenced and motivated by our expectations, whether we realize it or not.
For example, having a negative expectation that people will not like you because of your appearance (fitness, style, hair, etc) may lead you to work on looking more appealing so you can change the outcome (which is based on the expectation you have) from happening. This all relies on your ideas of what will happen, the picture you hold in your mind. It’s founded on your expectations, and can be “changed” by what you do about it- putting you in control. Fear and worry are ingrained in negative expectations, and we usually try to reverse them, or avoid them from happening.
With positive expectations, it’s the same process, and we respond with wanting to control those expectations…so they will happen. We will do everything in our power to make sure that what happens measures up to our expectations. Personally, I am a dreamer and a planner; I love to get these spectacular ideas, this specific picture in my mind of what I want to happen or do, and I will put all my planning and efforts into making it happen. The downside is, though, that even when you have positive expectations, you can feel anxiety. What if it doesn’t happen? What if it doesn’t go the way I hoped? Am I being too optimistic? You begin to question and doubt your expectations, which leads to a stronger desire to control the outcome. Or, you are so unrealistically positive to the end that when reality shatters your expectations, you are disappointed and sometimes devastated. Many people who are very negative in their expectations used to be quite positive, but after having their good expectations crushed so many times, they give up and expect the negative.
Emotions can soar and fall with anticipation and expectation. We feel them wrung tightly in our chest, in holding our breath, in the grip of our fists.
Both anticipation and expectation have to do with our hopes.
Anticipation and expectation aren’t bad things; they are part of normal life. Having hopes is good! What we must look at is the state of our heart and relationship with God in the hopes that we have.
Reflecting on your own life and heart, consider:
What are you hoping for?
What are you holding in your heart, looking forward to, anticipating?
What expectations have been set in your mind?
When you look forward in life, when you set your eyes on the future, what is leading you forward?
Take all those things, and now ask-
What would happen if you submitted and surrendered them to God?
Lately I have been anticipating several events in my life. A music festival, seeing some friends, and returning back to college to finish my degree. With all these, I have expectations. I feel anticipation. I have realized that many times in my life, my expectations often actually hinder my openness to the possibility of greater things that could happen. Simply put, I put God in a box. A box of my expectations, of what I think He has to work within. Well, God is outside that box. He won’t fit in it. He’s bigger than what I sometimes try to confine Him into.
In comparison to what God could do, my expectations are always lower. Even my highest hopes and dreams can be surprised by the possibilities God has in any given situation in my life.
In all honesty, there are many times I would rather things go my way. My will is stubborn. Because I get an idea of what’s best, and I have trouble seeing anything better at times. I don’t think I am the only one who gets this way, who wants what I want to happen.
What do we usually want? The ideal. The comfortable. The secure.
I get an idea and picture of what would be best, but guess what? Often I am wrong! God truly knows what is best for me. Sometimes, God’s best for me is to go through adversity and trials, because it will mature me, grow me, form my character and mold me more into who He is creating me to be: which is more like Him. Sometimes, God’s best for me is to not have everything I want or “need”, so I can learn that He is all I need.
Our human nature will not choose the way God as our loving Father would choose for us.
God desires us to learn humility. He wants us to surrender our own ideas of what should happen to Him, to give Him our hopes, to yield our expectations to His will and not our own. To give up our need for control and trust Him with the outcome.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.” Proverbs 3:5-6
The truth is, God sees above and beyond what I can see. I am confined to right now, the understanding of a young adult, and the perspective of what I can see where I am at currently. God sees possibilities I could never even picture or imagine. He extends time, He sees the beginning and end, He is eternal. And He has all wisdom. I do not. It would be foolish for me to think for one moment that I know better than Him!
That is why it is so important to seek Him. To know Him. To trust Him. God has given us His Holy Spirit, to dwell within us, to counsel and guide us (John 14:16, 26; 15:26). We can put our faith in God, because it rests not in what our circumstances or feelings tell us, not in what anyone else says, and not in what we see- it rests in Him.
We do not have to be anxious, fearful, or worried. 1 Timothy 6:6 in the BBE says that “true faith, with peace of mind, is of great profit.” God will give us peace of mind, all we must do is live with true faith.
What is faith? Faith is “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Faith comes from “hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). Faith is not just believing, but requires action: “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead” (James 2:17, 26). It is not just believing in God (James 2:19); it means that your actions match your faith. You live it out.
We must hear the word of Christ, believe God, and let our actions be built upon faith in Him and trusting Him.
Living a life of faith means that God will get all the glory, because He is the one we are depending on, trusting in, and who will accomplish the work. It means to abandon your own ideas of what could and should happen, and instead seek God, listen, and trust in what He says. It means being open to what He will do, even if you don’t know what it is and have to wait to see. It means His word is the highest authority in your life above all others. It means being obedient to live out what He shows you to do and trusting Him in the decisions you make- even if they seem crazy and require courage! It means surrendering control and trusting in Him.
Living by faith will also mean continually being in awe of God’s faithfulness and goodness- because that is always the final revelation of trusting in Him.
The truth is, we need God. We need to live by faith to be able to live the life He calls us to. We can do nothing without Him. Nothing. We have to come to grips with that, we need to realize (as David Platt said in Radical) that “God actually delights in exalting our inability. He intentionally puts his people in situations where they come face to face with their need for Him.”
All too often I think we put our expectations too low, because we need a higher vision. We need to seek God and hear of possibilities that require faith that will stretch us beyond our comfort zone and ability, so we will grow, so we will step out and say, “God, I am trusting in You.” We need to look at our lives through His eyes and His truth.
It is an adventure, living a life of faith in God. It is more exhilarating than anticipation. It goes above and beyond any expectation you could settle for.
The last thing is, living by faith is a testament for God’s glory that we can share with others. It creates opportunities to share how great, loving, faithful, good God is. Someone may come to Christ because they see the work God has done in and through your life, knowing the only explanation is it is because of Him. I could tell story after story of crazy things God has done in my life when I put my faith in Him. And I could tell stories of times I settled, of times I let fear, worry, or my own expectations reign…when I am sure I could have experienced something so much more with God (thankfully He even takes those times and uses them for good).
God is telling me right now to let go of my expectations in the circumstances in my life, to surrender, seek, listen to, obey, and trust Him. He is challenging me to see my life through His eyes, through His truth, and to stand by that. He is calling me to live by faith and on this incredible, daily adventure of seeing what He will do when I simply trust Him and follow as He leads. I believe He has great things in store.
“The righteous shall live by faith.” – (Hebrews 10:38, Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17).
1 Timothy 4:12 