Manage your expectations!

Around our home, probably yours too, there are these sayings that get picked up on and then used by the family – kinda like an inside joke – or more like inside “Truth.”

“Ya gotta know their history” translated means “Lighten up on the other guy, you don’t know what they’ve been through or what is happening in their life right now.”

“It will all work out even in the next 20 years” (a favorite of my mom) translated means “Quit complaining about the size of cake they are getting.”

“It’s all about relationships” (cuz it is!) translated means “Quit thinking about stuff you don’t have and think instead about the people in your life who love you.”

And there is one we use all the time: “Manage your expectations!”

I particularly like this adage. I don’t guess I invented it but . . . maybe I did. But feel free to use it! In fact, you should take it and make it yours. Here is why – to Manage your Expectationsis a Kingdom of God truth. Let me explain . . .

The human tendency is to make plans and work hard to make the plans come true. I get it. I do that too. Usually though, “my plans” are my plans. I have an agenda and a timetable, and I have things that I want to go my way. I get it, I do that too.

Here is the rub though:
  • When I yielded to the King of kings and said “yes” to His Kingdom agenda in my life …
  • And received His forgiveness and the gift of His love and grace by faith in Jesus Christ
  • That was the same moment that I proclaimed death to my old self (Colossians 3:9-10, Ephesians 4:22-24, Romans 6:6) and to my personal worldly agenda and values …
  • And then took up instead Jesus’ agenda for my life and yielded exclusively to the hopes and purposes of the Kingdom of God!
Recognizing all this – I therefore need to manage my expectations – with the operative words being “MY EXPECTATIONS!”

The good news of the Kingdom of God is that when I trade in my worldly, selfish plans that prioritize my own comfort and my own materialistic pursuits, He replaces that with His plan for my life to advance the Kingdom of God. My hopes are now His hopes, my purposes are now His purposes. I take delight in His glory, and my pursuit of the respect of my peers, influence over the world, positions of worldly power no longer hold sway over my attitudes and intentions!

That is very good news!! This is the Gospel of the Kingdom! Because not only do we now have refreshed values, profound purpose and a beautiful community of Christian brothers and sisters, I also now have the promises of the King to enjoy and hold onto, like:

  1. Feasting at the Banquet Table and the wedding party of the Bridegroom,
  2. Sharing in His Glory,
  3. In some mysterious way we are also called Co-Heirs and Co-Rulers with Him,
  4. Enjoying eternal life in Christ and
  5. Worshiping Him without limits or interruptions.
Let’s look at these briefly one by one:

    1. Feasting at the Banquet Table and the wedding party of the Bridegroom

    Eating together was almost a sacred ritual in the first century middle east. It still is an important ‘ritual’ of hospitality and honor. When you read through the Gospels with eyes to see it, eating together and banquets are common. Jesus ate with tax gatherers and sinners, with Pharisees and His disciples. He spoke of banquets in heaven in His parables and Revelation speaks of this same act of fellowship. Revelation 19:7-9 tells us with certainty of this end of days that there will be a banquet in heaven called “The Marriage Supper of the Lamb.” This will be quite a party when the Bride – Jesus’ church/the Kingdom Citizens – are gathered together from all tribes and nations and there will celebrate together the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ the Victorious One, at a wedding feast. There the Bride and the Groom will be One at last!

      Revelation 19:7-9
      Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
    The banquet parable in Matthew 22 foretells this event. All that is to say that we already have a ticket punched for this blessed event! I hope you come hungry!

    2. Sharing in His Glory

    Jesus has told us that we will share in His glory. I can hardly wrap my head around that possibility. God’s glory is furious and staggering to behold.

    First, we must understand that God is jealous for His Glory. The first four of the Ten Commandments remind us of His place above all gods. To stand before His face without the Cloak of Righteousness supplied by Jesus Christ is to be destroyed. To put an exclamation point behind this idea, in Isaiah 42 God states, “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images” (v8).

    God’s glory is His alone and rightly so! It is all about His honor, splendor, and majesty, and He will not share it with anyone. So, it is clear God will not share His glory. So how is it that we could share in His glory?

    The point is that God will not share His glory with other gods. But . . .He promises to share the glory of the Godhead with the Beloved of His Son! How about that! Paul writes to the new believers in the church of Thessalonica;

      2 Thessalonians 2:13-14
      But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
    And then in Romans 8:16-17 we read; The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

    I don’t know exactly what that means but I can’t wait to see His glory and bask in that beautiful life giving light!

    3. Co-Heirs and Co-Rulers with Him

    To co-rule with him is another imponderable. He is the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. His rule is unquestioned and He has absolute sovereignty over all things. Yet we are declared to be Co-Heirs and Co-Rulers. Here is how Paul put it;

      Romans 8:17
      “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
    This verse tells us that if we have yielded to Christ we become His child in a way and God becomes our ‘Abba’ – our ‘Daddy.’ And if we are His children and share the sufferings of Christ (living lives of obedience and sacrifice for the sake of the Father) we will share in the glory, and I would say responsibilities, of Christ as His “co-heirs” or “joint heirs.” We are not equal to Him in position or authority but our inheritance in heaven is now sure (1 Peter 1:4).

    The Greek term translated “heirs” in this Romans passage describes “those who receive their allotted possession by right of sonship.” It is like we are in the line of inheritance of the riches and powers of Divine Royalty!

      Colossians 3:24
      Knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
    Crazy but true!

    4. Enjoying eternal life in Christ
    “Eternal life in Christ” is a buzz phrase in Christian lingo. It rolls off the tongue really easy. But it would be good to meditate on the reality of this statements:

      John 10:28-30
      I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.
      1 Peter 5:10
      And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
      1 John 2:17
      The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
      1 John 5:11-12
      And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
    And don’t forget. It is not just living a long time like some recent sci-fi movie. I’ve seen them too – they don’t work out. Just living a long time would be tough I think for so many reasons. No, what Jesus has promised is eternal life that is abundant and full and found in Him. That gives us much to think about and lay claim to. Because if I really believed that, all fear would be gone – Death will have lost its sting! This is very, very good news!

    5. Worshiping Him without limits or interruptions
    Finally, we will be able to worship Him with all the Saints forever and ever without interruption. Talk about joyous!

    Now maybe you have lived through some pretty rough worship services. And singing non-stop is not your idea of a great eternal time. Maybe you were thinking more – oh IDK . . . golfing. If you’re thinking a lifetime of worship sounds like a big time bummer, I want to bring you up to speed.

    Worship there is nothing like worship here. The celebrations there will be praise and songs and celebrating but here is the secret of Heavenly Worship . . . the actual presence of the Person of Jesus Christ in His Risen and Glorious form. You will not be able to stop for a moment. You will want to bow down and say “Glory!” over and over for the revealed character and splendor and majesty. You will never ever want to look away! Trust me on this one!
I need to wrap up for now. But let me share one last thought about all of this managing your expectations stuff. Just to be clear, there is a very real danger in failing to manage our expectations!

If I come to wrongly believe that “my plans” must have the highest priority in life, I may begin to shape my prayers around “my set of expectations.” I may begin to pray not, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” but rather, “My will be done on earth as I would prefer it to be.” We might not say that out loud actually, but we begin to think this way. Some bad doctrine out there encourages very selfish prayers. And when God answers our selfish prayers with “No” or “Not Yet” we get angry at God for not giving us what we want.

Beware! He never, ever, ever promised us our worldly desires. When the scriptures rightly declare that God will “give us the desires of our hearts,” remember God has given us new hearts! Our hearts now are set on Him. We long for what He longs for. We long now to participate in divine deeds of eternal proportion so that none would confuse them for anything but the handiwork of God! And Jesus declared that it would happen – that we will do even greater things in accordance with the will of the Father.

So, think about it. Start to manage your expectations. Live into God’s promises instead. And I look forward to seeing you here at 100foldministries.org again soon!