Great Expectations

 

Do you have plans for the future?  I do.  I plan on going to cardiac rehab on Monday morning, but none of us knows what a day will bring forth.  I don’t mean to be morbid, but on any given day, there are tragic car accidents.  People receive cancer diagnoses.  Others may get a pink slip at work.  We all have expectations for the future, but only the Lord knows the future.  In college, I read “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.  It was one of his longest novels.  The book followed the life of a little waif (Pip) who was the beneficiary of a mysterious donor.  He was taken under the wing of an old lady (Miss Havisham) and grew up with the old lady’s granddaughter (Estella).  Pip was groomed, tutored, and became a wealthy, powerful man.  But after almost 400 pages of tedious reading, Pip and Estella never got together!  What a waste of my time!  Pip had ‘Great Expectations’ for his life and I had ‘Great Expectations’ for Dickens’ book, but neither happened!  Hey, have you ever had ‘Great Expectations’ in your life?  But have your plans failed?  It could be that your plans are not what the dear Lord had planned for your life.  God told Israel in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”  The Lord has ’Great Expectations’ for Israel, and the Lord has ‘Great Expectations’ for you as well!  Hey, let the Lord lead and follow His expectations.  You’ll never be sorry that you did.