Sometimes it is hard being a person who is so Black and White. 🧐It can be good, BUT, if you get conditioned to always see/expect negative, it can be a hard and negative life.

This has been me for YEARS. Always waiting for the other shoe to drop, telling myself disappointments don’t matter, that it was my fault anyway, I will try harder, etc. On and on…..

Lately, I have been thinking about this and it has caused me to reflect on how I got that way and how am I able to see so much clearer now? I went back 5-7 years…

One day on my lunch break, I was praying about a GOOD THING and I was fretting it would turn out to have bad effects. All of a sudden, I heard the Lord say to me “Why can’t you expect good things?” And it dawned on me, that if I believed He orchestrated this good thing (which He did) then why couldn’t I trust Him to see it through?! After all, the Bible says, He that began a good work, shall complete it! (Phil 1:6)

So, that day I started to work on changing my thinking. Looking back even further, I now realize that God started me on a journey two years prior when He told me basically to purpose to be thankful in all things. I did that, and it changed my entire life. (see blog post https://kelitadeems.wordpress.com/2018/06/27/thankfulness-changed-my-life/)

Back to GOOD THINGS!

One of my favorite scriptures is Phil 4:8 – whatever things are lovely, true, noble, of good report, think on these things. So I cut out some other stuff…. tv shows, NEWS, etc. I incorporated this scripture front and center and about the same time I was learning to expect good things, I started praying – Lord, show me truth, even if it hurts, even if it makes me angry. Without truth, I have nothing. Show me truth. And, there were a couple times a new instruction would come as a result of that prayer. Nothing overbearing, just a – do this and not that. OR do this here like you do there. And I thought – Ok. I mean, we all have blind spots, right? But just this week I realized, every time I have prayed that prayer, I was expecting an admonishment, a correction or a flaw of mine to be pointed out. With the reason being if there was an area that I was not living in truth, then I had to be doing something wrong, right??? It would be MY fault and I would need to deal with it.

Today: in the last several months, I have begun to see truth that I have never in my life seen before and it shocked me because it was GOOD! Overwhelming and almost too good to be true, yet, there it was, right in the word of God. This truth did not say to me that I was doing a bad thing, or was at fault, or even condemned!

Wait, how could I have read this Gospel before and not seen the goodness, not seen the truth? BECAUSE my eyes had a filter of always expecting something to be bad, to always be corrected, to always have failed or not done something right. And this is because I have allowed religion and religious people to beat me up all of my life and mask the goodness of the Gospel, or at the very least put it out of my reach, not attainable. What truth? The truth of my true identity and the full benefits given to me as I accept my identity in Christ. The lightbulb? Matthew 11:30, Jesus says My yoke is easy and My burden is light. The word EASY in the Strong’s concordance means: virtuous, good, useful, manageable, mild, pleasant, KIND and benevolent. Jesus is saying My yoke is virtuous, good (for you) mild, pleasant, KINDNESS and benevolent! WOW WOW WOW – Why oh why do we make it so hard? Because we get caught in the trap of religion instead of knowing our identity as His child. A good parent has good things for their children and even when they discipline, they correct in love and kindness! That’s why in Romans 2:4 it says it is the GOODNESS of God that draws men to repentance! YES!

As I pondered this, I realized when the Lord said Why can’t you expect good things?, that He was asking much more than expectations to situations, He was asking me to expect good things from HIM as a Father and me being His child. He is a good Father and He is for me. What an awesome God. My journey is now on a different approach to life – I have a Father who loves me and is for me. He’s got me. I will honor Him, but I am not afraid and I expect good things! Even in the middle of all that is life and regardless of what I see. It will all work for my good! (Romans 8:28)

Changing my thinking, asking for TRUTH has changed my life. And you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)

“I am clothed with strength (confidence) and dignity, (I KNOW my identity as a daughter of the Most High) and I laugh without fear (or expecting bad things in and) of the future! Proverbs 31:25.

I Expect Good Things!