So what does this mean? We will just always react out of flawed flesh even though we\u2019re supposed to be new creations? The answer is No of course not! God has given us all we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-4). This is through His Holy Spirit (Romans 8:1-11). Through the Holy Spirit our minds are being renewed day by day (Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 4:16). We are to take EVERY (not some, but every) thought captive to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 2:5). We can recognize this is happening when you start to notice your thoughts are pure, holy, noble, or praise worthy as described in Philippians 4:8. Our natural mind is not prone to such thinking, but our minds submitted to the Spirit can’t help but think of these things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t emphasize it enough. There is no way through your own effort that you can change yourself or make yourself any better. Only God working in you through the Holy Spirit can cause real, lasting change to happen. Only the Holy Spirit can give you the grace to walk away from that argument or the courage to share the gospel with that stranger or friend. Every single good thing in you and done through you is from God and He should receive all the praise for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we guard our minds in Christ against the battle of the flesh, God also gives us the armor to suit up against the external attacks of the enemy. Ephesians 6:10-18 describes all that the Father has given you to combat these external attacks. He has suited us with His armor so that we are fully prepared for any attack. But it comes down to us making the choice to put it on and use it effectively in battle – living submitted to His Spirit and equipped with His Word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He enables us to live out our victorious life in every aspect. Even in this fallen, evil world where Satan still reigns. Just because he reigns in the world does not mean he has any authority to reign in any area of our lives. Reminder – we are sitting in victory with Jesus right now in the heavenlies. We live and walk in victory every time we decide to stop, pray, and submit to the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way to know and see we are walking and living in the Holy Spirit is seeing the evidence of the fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). These are not things that we can pretend to do or make ourselves do in the flesh. They are GIFTS of the SPIRIT. They come from God and are ours to exemplify when we live submissive and obedient to the Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to Expectations.<\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n

So let\u2019s go back to expectations. What does all this mean? Living with certain expectations isn\u2019t necessarily bad but it\u2019s where those expectations come from and how we respond when they don\u2019t pan out as we want that matters. If you\u2019re living submitted to the Spirit, your expectations will align with God\u2019s (1 Corinthians 2:16) and you will not worry about timing or the way it will all happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when your expectations are of your own doing, nothing but disappointment will meet you. Because the timing and way it comes to be will most likely not go your way. This will result in frustration and anger at people around you (who are not at fault by the way-Satan is) or God (who also is not at fault because He knows better than we could ever know). So it may be a good opportunity to look in our hearts, examine our motives, and find the source of our disappointments. There you can get to the truth – the expectations that aren\u2019t\/weren\u2019t being met and you can prayerfully submit them to God and combat them with Truth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

God desires for us to live peaceful, joyful life full of delighting in His gifts. He truly does have the best for us at heart. Sometimes all it takes is a realignment of our spirits to see and receive that truth. I\u2019m praying you will find the peace and joy of the Lord today and experience true freedom from any disappointments or unmet expectations you are carrying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAnd we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.\u201d\u202d\u202dRomans\u202c \u202d8:28\u202c \u202d Expectations. We all have them. We have them for our spouses, children, friends, family, teachers, and even God. Whether we consciously recognize it or not, we have expectations for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":319,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[32,42,17,30],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thismommaneedsgrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thismommaneedsgrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thismommaneedsgrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thismommaneedsgrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thismommaneedsgrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thismommaneedsgrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277,"href":"https:\/\/thismommaneedsgrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thismommaneedsgrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thismommaneedsgrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thismommaneedsgrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thismommaneedsgrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}