We must look at God’s Word, ask God to give us the right desires, and examine our life circumstances and limitations and see what our service will look like. We may have expectations for ourselves, and others may have them for us, but we also are finite creatures with limitations. And these limitations mean that our situation is different than other people’s circumstances, and so we will not look exactly like someone else in the way we do things. And this is a good thing. God made us individuals.
We all live with expectations in our lives about what we can or cannot, will or will not, or should and should not do. Sometimes these expectations come from other people, sometimes they come from ourselves, and sometimes they come from the Word of God. Regardless of where they come from, we have to handle them in day-to-day life, which often can be a burden if we don’t look at them through the lenses of God’s Word and the grace we have in Christ.
We must first ground all our expectations in God’s Word.
We must understand not only the expectations we have and the expectations others have of us but also the providential limitations that God has placed in our lives. These limitations can be things like time, location, health, finances, responsibilities, or just being finite beings who can’t be everywhere at once or be everything to everyone. This is why it is very important to read the Scriptures and know what God’s expectations are for us, so that any other expectations can be measured by his standard alone.
There are things the Word of God is clear on, such as God’s law in the Ten Commandments, the fact of the sinfulness of man’s heart, and that all who have new life in Christ bear the fruit of the Spirit. These are foundational to Christians’ expectations for themselves and the world around them. But there are many other things in God’s Word, along with our situation as finite creatures, that will shape expectations we set for ourselves in light of the limitations with which we must live.
We need to be careful not to set our expectations based upon what other people are doing.
The first church my husband was co-pastor of was a wonderful congregation, and I was so blessed by the women in this church. One elder’s wife in particular was always serving families with young children. It was her gift of service to the church, and it was a wonderful thing to see and experience.