Get Your Hopes Up!: Expect Something Good to Happen to You Every Day (2 page)

Let me tell you a story about a woman named Betty. Betty is a believer. She reads her Bible on a regular basis. And she volunteers by passing out blankets to the homeless once a month. Betty sounds beautiful, doesn’t she?

Well, there is something else about Betty you should know: Her friends call her “Bad-News Betty” when she’s not around. They feel terrible about the nickname, but in all fairness, Betty has earned it; she has a way of expecting, predicting, and finding the worst in almost every situation. I’ll give you an example.

Last summer, Betty and her husband (Failure Phil) went on a family vacation with their two children (Won’t-Amount-to-Much Will and Middle-of-the-Pack Megan). Now, I should tell you that Phil is a loving husband and Will and Megan are great kids, but Betty doesn’t have high hopes for them. She doesn’t expect much for them either. As a matter of fact, she kind of assumes the worst, hence their nicknames.

Months earlier, Phil and Betty had planned a summer week at a popular vacation destination, but as the trip grew closer, Betty just knew it was going to be a disaster. As they drove the 300 miles to their vacation spot, Betty kept complaining, “This was a bad idea. The lines to do anything in the park are going to be a mile long. I doubt the hotel will be as good as advertised. I bet it’s going to rain the whole week.” Phil and the kids tried to assure Betty it would be fine—they could make the best of any situation—but Betty’s sour mood was unfazed. Poor Phil, Will, and Megan… the 300-mile drive felt like 1,000 miles of drudgery.

It’s safe to say the vacation lived down to Betty’s expectations. The lines at the water park were a little longer than usual. Phil, Will, and Megan didn’t mind—this gave them a few extra minutes to laugh together and plan what ride to go on next—but Betty was terribly upset. “I knew this was going to happen,” she muttered.

The restaurant they chose to dine at the first night wasn’t perfect either. The waitress informed Phil and Betty they were out of the soft drink the couple ordered. Phil chose a different drink; Betty chose a depressing attitude. “Unbelievable!” she sighed.

But the straw that broke the camel’s back was the hotel room. When the family settled into their room for the night, they discovered the TV wasn’t working properly. “I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!” an exasperated Betty griped. “I knew this hotel wasn’t going to be any good.” Phil called the front desk, and maintenance quickly brought a new television up, but the damage was already done.

Bad-News Betty had her bad-news vacation… this was exactly what she expected.

The story of Betty is a fictitious account of someone who looks an awful lot like you and me at times. We’ve all found ourselves dealing with pessimistic attitudes and low expectations—describing
the weather as “partly cloudy” rather than “partly sunny,” seeing the glass as “half empty” instead of “half full.”

For Betty, her low expectations kept her from enjoying a summer vacation, but for many people, low expectations keep them from enjoying their lives. They go through each day with negative, faultfinding, critical attitudes, rarely hoping for the best because they’re too busy expecting the worst. When things are going poorly they think
I had a feeling today was going to be a bad day
, and when things are going well they think
This probably won’t last long
. Good days or bad, on the mountaintop or in the valley, they’re not enjoying their lives… because they’ve never expected they could. Perhaps you and I are not as bad as Betty, but to be honest, any degree of hopelessness has a devastating effect on our lives. Why not believe the best and open the door to see what God will do?

Low expectations are more than a few grumpy complaints on a longer-than-usual Monday or a feeling that maybe you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Low expectations are symptoms of a deeper problem, a
spiritual
problem. A person may have a history of disappointments that caused him to form a habit of expecting more of the same. Some people have such low self-esteem that they assume they are not worth anything nice, so they never expect it. And then there are those who don’t know that God is good and wants to do good things for His children. The risks these symptoms pose are significant. If we were to describe what’s happening in our souls the same way we would describe a physical ailment, it might sound something like this:

Betty’s symptoms were negativity, worry, and complaining. These symptoms were caused by a condition of her heart: hopelessness. Instead of hoping for a great family vacation, Betty assumed the worst.
The lines are going to be long. We’ll never find a good restaurant. The hotel will be terrible
. There is no hope in any of those thoughts. However, Phil, Will, and Megan had different symptoms. They were positive, upbeat, cheerful, and ready to make the most of any situation. They were full of hope, and their expectations were sky high.

It’s important to realize that the circumstances were the same for Betty and her family, but the ways they reacted to those circumstances were different. They all stood in long lines; they all ate at the same restaurant; they all sat down in front of the broken television. When these things happened, Betty’s low expectations were confirmed, causing her to want to give up. For the rest of the family, their high expectations were challenged, but they chose to remain hopeful and joyful, which enabled them to find ways to deal with the circumstances and move on, enjoying every step of the way.

With that picture in mind, let me ask you an important question: What are your symptoms? If you were to conduct an honest evaluation of your heart, what would you find there?

Are you like Phil, Will, and Megan? Excited about the future, expecting today to be better than yesterday and tomorrow to be even better than today? Do you wake up each morning with a happy anticipation that God is going to do something amazing in your life?

Or are you more like Bad-News Betty? Do you find yourself bracing for the worst? Do you worry about bad things happening before they actually happen? Do you use phrases like
here
we go again, this will never work out, I should’ve known things would go sour
, and
I’ve got a bad feeling about this
?

Evaluating our hearts is an important exercise as we begin this journey of hope together, because hope in God and positive
expectation
are very closely related to faith. For the sake of discussion, we can easily say that the level of your expectation is the level of your faith. Show me a person with low expectations, and I’ll show you a person using very little faith. But show me a person with big expectations, and I’ll show you a person acting with bold faith. Just remember that we are talking about having our expectation in God. It is more than a mere positive attitude; it is trusting God to take care of you and everything that concerns you.

The Word of God tells us that our faith—our positive, hopeful expectation—pleases God (see Hebrews 11:6), and several times in the Gospels, we see that Jesus was moved to act because of the faith—the expectations—of those He encountered (see Matthew 9:29, Mark 5:34, Luke 7:50, and Luke 17:19). One such miracle is found in Mark chapter 10. I love this story, and I think it has great relevance for you and me today because it’s all about the importance of expectation.

Mark 10:46–47 says:

If you think about it, Bartimaeus had every reason to expect the worst. He was a blind beggar who sat by the roadside every day, trying to survive on spare change. He was living a very difficult life, and if anybody was going to tone down his level of expectation, you would think it would be Bartimaeus. He could have thought
This is useless. It won’t work. Nothing’s going to change. Jesus probably won’t even notice me. Why get my hopes up?
No one would have blamed him.

But Bartimaeus dared to hope for something greater in life. He started to think about what might happen instead of what might not happen. There was nothing “toned down” about his level of expectation as he began to shout with all of his might, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity and mercy on me [now]!” Can you hear the insistence in his voice? It’s as if Bartimaeus had decided there was absolutely no way he was going to miss this chance. Even though many in the crowd “censured and reproved him, telling him to keep still” (see Mark 10:48), Bartimaeus would not be quieted. He shouted louder and louder until Jesus stopped and called for him.

Here is one of the most amazing parts of this story: When Bartimaeus was brought to Jesus, the Lord asked him an almost unthinkable question. In verse 51, Jesus said to this blind beggar, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

That seems like a strange question, doesn’t it? The disciples may have been thinking
“What do you want me to do for you?” Lord, isn’t it obvious? The man is blind. How can You ask him that?
But Jesus was asking something deeper—He was asking Bartimaeus:
What are you expecting? Are you only expecting a meal? Are you wanting someone to lead you around by the hand? Are you merely expecting a handout?
All of those things were certainly things Bartimaeus needed, and if he was living with little faith, he may have settled for one of those things.

But Bartimaeus had a greater level of expectation. When Jesus asked, “What do you want Me to do for you?” Bartimaeus didn’t
hesitate, he didn’t have to think about it, he didn’t wonder if he was asking for too much. Bartimaeus boldly said, “Master, let me receive my sight.” You probably know the rest of the story. Jesus was greatly moved by Bartimaeus’ faith. Verse 52 says: “And Jesus said to him, Go your way; your faith has healed you. And at once he received his sight and accompanied Jesus on the road.”

Because Bartimaeus was bold enough to believe for God’s best, that is exactly what he received from the Lord. The same is true in your life, and this is why the level of your expectation is so important to the kind of life you’re going to live. If you don’t expect God to do anything great in your life, He won’t. But if you dare to raise your level of expectation and begin anticipating that God wants to do something great in your life, you’ll begin to dream, believe, ask, and act with a confident boldness, knowing God is for you and has a great plan for your life.

Just in case you are questioning if it is acceptable for you to expect good things from God, please slowly read and meditate on this Scripture in Isaiah.

God is looking for those He can be good to, and if you are looking for (expecting) God to be good to you, then you qualify. Expect God
to give you Himself because He is more important than anything else, but remember that with Him comes all the other things we will ever need.

You may be reading this chapter and thinking
Joyce, that sounds great, but how am I supposed to expect more? I’m running from one appointment to another, barely paying my bills, just trying to keep the kids fed or the company afloat. And I’ve spent my whole life working as hard as I can to get to
this
point. How in the world do I raise my level of expectation?

There is so much I could say about faith—thousands upon thousands of books have been written on the topic—but I want to give you three simple steps that can get you started today. These three steps will help you raise your level of expectation: