A Dangerous Faith-Buster: Misplaced Expectations

Hebrews 12:2 (TPT)
We look away from the natural realm and we fasten our gaze onto Jesus who birthed
faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection.

Probably at one time or another in our lives we have found ourselves embracing the old adage: “If you don’t look forward to anything you will never be disappointed if it doesn’t happen.” It may be a safe viewpoint, but it certainly is not scriptural. In fact, the opposite is true. As believers we are instructed time and again to maintain a posture of hope; the Biblical definition being “earnest expectation, confident trust and the anticipation of something good.” Those definitions definitely do not line up with the world’s definition of hope which more often than not means “wishing” that it might happen.

How do we square the fact that as believers we are always to believe for the best, yet live with the reality that often what we are believing for doesn’t materialize as we expected? The answer is found in where we focus our expectations.  Several years ago, a minister of the gospel wrote an article on the dangers of misplaced expectations in the lives of believers. In the article she pointed to the number one reason for misplaced expectations – taking our eyes off the One who is the Source of our Bible hope and focusing instead on the natural realm. In the process of doing that, we begin to focus on how we believe it will come to pass. When that happens, the door to disappointment opens and our faith becomes compromised.

This minister of the gospel used an example from scripture to make her point. In 2 Kings 5:1-14, Naaman, a military leader in the Syrian army, had leprosy. He was persuaded by a servant to go see the prophet Elisha to get healed. When he arrived, Elisha did not come to see Naaman, but sent a servant to tell him to go dip in the Jordan River seven times to receive his healing. Naaman was not happy about Elisha not coming personally to see him and he was not happy about being told to dip in the Jordan River when there were rivers in Syria that he could have used.

Take note, the problem for Naaman was not a lack of faith.  His problem was misplaced expectations. He believed Elisha would heal him, but he had a picture in his head of how the healing was going to manifest. When it didn’t go that way, he became angry. Fortunately, one of his officers was able to talk Naaman into following Elisha’s instructions and he received his healing.

Before we judge Naaman too harshly, we should realize that we often do the same thing.  We have that earnest expectation that God is going to act on our behalf, but we get pulled off-course when, in our confident expectation, we begin to develop a picture in our heads of how He is going to do it.

Someone once said that all faith failures are a result of broken focus. Misplaced expectations are a result of broken focus and will cripple our faith. Following the wisdom found in Hebrews 12:2 (The Passion Translation) will help us keep our focus exactly where it needs to be: “We look away from the natural realm and we fasten our gaze onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection.” When we do that, we will experience the truth of Romans 5:5 (paraphrase): Bible hope does not disappoint!! 

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