Expectations from God can lead one to either more faith or less. The Lord tells us "Ask and you shall receive." We have an invitation to expect a lot from God. Constantly He is reassuring us that He knows and that He can help us. He is begging us for high expectations. Of course this is a two way street. He has tremendous expectations for us as well. He expects us to listen to Him and do what He says. Thats when He will fulfill His promises.
A lot of people have that disillusionment when they feel they've given everything and yet their expectations are unfulfilled.
A number of reasons this happens.
-Alma 32:21
And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.
It dictates that true faith must be in things that are true. At times expectations of can be a faith in things that are not true and thus cannot be fulfilled. In order to have faith they must be in true things. If we have unrealistic expectations then of course they won't come to pass for us. We must be humble in our expectations
-Moroni 7:8-11
For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God.
And likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such.
Wherefore, a man being evil cannot do that which is good; neither will he give a good gift.
For behold, a bitter fountain cannot bring forth good water; neither can a good fountain bring forth bitter water; wherefore, a man being a servant of the devil cannot follow Christ; and if he follow Christ he cannot be a servant of the devil.
I think this scripture definitely sums it up. We cannot expect to receive a true gift from God without giving a true gift to God.
-Perhaps all the more what happens is we just don't know how to receive the great things God has in store for us. Its possible that we have been given what we wanted but just don't realize it. Often the Lord works in His own way and has certain specifications upon what He has for us.
-Its possible what we asked for isn't really what we wanted.
If I had more time I'd probably be able to come up with more but one things I've learned today at church is that the Lord has a million ways to teach us a million things if we have but a humble heart.
I know we can put our expectations on God and thus on ourselves just as if we're honest with God we'll be honest with ourselves and realize the great things that are in store for those who love God.
