Expectations are Killers!

By Diane Nix

In ministry, we live our lives with high expectations. According to the web, the word expectation defined as a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future, a belief that someone will or should achieve something. Expectation is conjecture, assumption, hope! Awe! There it is…hope! Proverbs thirteen verse twelve says, “Hope deferred makes a heart sick…”  When we as ministry wives slip into the mindset that others will see our labor and acknowledge it and even approve it, we place our hope in something or someone other than our Lord.

The truth is, most people we shepherd are in fact, consumed with surviving their own lives. They look to us not as fellow sojourners but as the ones who will, in fact, be cheering them on. Admonishing when needed. Exhorting an absolute and truthfully being the cheerleader to help them through their journey.

Life is hard. Ministry is hard, even at its best!

Our hope, our expectation has to be placed fully upon our Lord!

On this Good Friday, we remember the crucifixion of our Lord. Fully man. Fully God hung on a cross! Beaten and battered for our sins – he took what we owed and paid the penalty so that we might have an intimate relationship and hope with the God of this universe.

I know that this day finds many of us in despair! There are some, reading this, who have been severely wounded or are weary of the journey. We have inadvertently placed our hopes, our expectations on those who were never responsible for meeting our deepest needs!

So, let’s adjust our expectations.

Release those who have failed to recognize our labor and let us forgive them. Forgive and release by faith, in the one who has forgiven us, release them from our unholy expectations.

¹⁴ For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.