1 Peter 1:3: “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation…”  (NLT)

When you think about your day, do you expect good things to happen to you? Do you expect people to have favour in whichever situation you find yourself? Do you expect good outcomes for every deal or situation you have to face? Do you expect good breaks to come your way? Or, do you wait for something bad to happen to you? Do you expect people to find fault with your work? Do you expect a deal to fall through? Do you expect a challenging situation or relationship to turn sour? Do you find yourself in a situation where you think up scenarios about how things could go wrong?

I did and still do sometimes.

Psalm 5:12 says, “For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous, you surround them with your favour as with a shield.” (NIV)

I know the truth that God’s favour is on my life and I declare it over my life every day, but I still find myself at times where I expect the worst possible outcome even if there is nothing bad to expect. I manage to steal my own peace without anything bad happening to me. Have you found yourself in the same place?

As a believer in Christ, we can always have a good expectation because of what He has already achieved for us. When we realise who and what we are in Christ, we can have no other expectations for our lives, but a good one.

It is a conscious decision that one must make to not expect a bad outcome, but to know that you are walking in God’s favour, not because you are so good or have done something right, but because God loves you and you are His child. When God says His favour protects us like a shield, it does. We are the only ones that could deny ourselves the reality thereof by keeping our eyes on the wrong things. It is when we take our eyes off God and His heart for us and start focusing on ourselves and our circumstances that we stop seeing His goodness and only see our own limitations and insecurities.

No one is perfect, we all make mistakes, but none of that stops God’s favour and love from flowing through our lives. When we put our trust in God and give every situation, every relationship, and every challenge and dream we have into His hands, we will have good outcomes. The outcome may not always be the way we thought it would be, but it will be good!

Whatever we put our minds on is what we will see in our lives! When we expect bad things to happen to us that is what we will most likely see happening. When we put our minds on the best outcome for every situation, we will see good things happening to us. We have a hope in Christ which cannot be disappointed. It is however up to us to receive it for ourselves!