Our Life in Review: Lesson #4 God is good. Trust Him with everything

Expect the worst – prepare for the best. We’ve all heard that advice. It’s conventional wisdom. I’ve heard it 3 times in the past week. Conventional wisdom also says that bad things happen in threes. Or is it good things happen in threes. I don’t know. I just know that when I hear something from different sources 3 or more times, it’s my cue to sit up and take notice. The same message in many ways. I've read that the number 3 points to God's sovereignty. God just might be speaking. 

So I asked God, what do I need to learn? Is there something wrong with this thinking? The first time I read this statement, the writer said, 

“Expectation is a form of faith. Your expectation is the belief that what you’re hoping for is actually going to happen, not your backup plan to take care of yourself in case it doesn’t.”

Can we hope for God’s best if we’re really believing in the worst? If I’m expecting the worst, is that what I’ll end up with? What is that saying about what I believe God can or will do for me? And will my lack of faith interfere with God moving in my situation? These are all questions I’ve been pondering this week.

We raised our children to know God. Not just know ABOUT God. But know Him as a friend. A good father. Someone to have a vibrant ongoing relationship with. In order to have a good relationship with Him, we have to believe that we can trust Him and that He’s good. This week, I think God was refining that belief in me.

I don’t consider myself a control freak. (Don’t ask my husband or kids though. Let me stay in denial.) I don’t find it too difficult to go with the flow in group situations. I can follow when the moment calls for it. I don’t always have to be in charge. (OK, just sometimes.) However, when it comes to trusting God, I’ve learned that one of the hardest issues of trust for me is surrendering my control. When it comes to expectations, if I can’t control the outcome, I can at least lower my expectations, thereby controlling the emotional fallout. Still an illusion of control. If I don’t expect a gift on my birthday, and someone forgets, I won’t be disappointed. That makes sense, right? (Silly illustration, but you get the point.)

In many situations I don’t even know what my expectations are until they go unmet. That’s a hard one to prepare for! Consequently, I’ve found myself thinking through scenarios and lowering my expectations, so I won’t be hurt or disappointed. (Wow, to put that down in black and white is a little jarring.)

But this week, I feel like God is showing me that I’ve traded potential joy and opportunity for false or perceived security. The second place I read this statement, the author was explaining how believing God for the best actually sets us free. What happens when we see God’s way, expect the best and prepare for the best? “We become free from apprehension and filled with anticipation.” What?! I want that! To actually look forward to good things happening? Yep.

In my best moments I know I’ve experienced that. Filled with faith, I pray and actually believe that God is going to do good things. The problem is I can’t control the outcome. If what God decides is a good thing, doesn’t coincide with what I want or define as a good thing, disappointment follows. Preparing for the worst really exposes that I don’t believe God is going to answer my prayer. Or worse, that He’ll answer but He’ll disappoint me. When did I stop believing that God is good. And that His plans for me are good?

What about Eph 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us”… Like He had to use two really big adverbs so we would realize He really means business.

If God’s word is to be believed, it looks like He has plans that are way way way above anything I can even imagine! Now that’s something to get excited about.

If Peter had expected the worst, but hoped for the best, he would never have stepped out of the boat when Jesus told him to come to him on the water. You could argue that he started to sink shortly after he took his first step, but he had to have expected initially that he would be able to do exactly what Jesus said he would do. And Peter sinking was not Jesus failing to do His part. Peter only started to sink when he looked at the wind and the waves. Fear of the worst interrupted the amazing experience Jesus had planned for Peter.

And what about Romans 8:28 “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God - those whom he has called according to his plan.”

Even when the worst happens…your child gets sick, you lose your job, that storm hits. Can you believe that God will use it for something good in your life? I got fired from a job once. No amount of preparing for the worst and hoping for the best was going to save me from that situation. Because in hindsight I understand that God was working things in my heart and my faith that required that outcome. I grew exponentially through that very painful situation. And holding onto trust that God was going to work it together for my good was essential to me coming through that experience whole.

The 3^rd time I heard this statement this week was out of the mouth of a detective on a TV show. I laughed out loud. Like the moment in the Bible when God spoke audibly through a donkey. He can speak to us through any means He chooses. Call me crazy, but I know God was getting my attention. He is adjusting a wrong way of thinking that has wormed its way into my psyche.

I will work on consciously expecting the best, and preparing for the best. I will trust that God is good and if things don’t work out the way I want, at some point I will understand. In this life or the next. Hard things must come in life too. They are good teachers. Sometimes the best. But God has my ultimate good in mind even in those situations. I can trust Him in everything. He is GOOD.