Do you expect a lot of yourself? Are you a perfectionist, never quite satisfied with your work, always wanting to better yourself, embarrassed and self-deprecating if ever people praise you? I know someone like this. He is lovely, but rather tiring to be around. He is always so down on himself and is never willing to give himself a break. As a result the people around him have to work harder, building him up and encouraging him. He expects that he won’t do things well, even when others know he will.

I wonder what you are expecting will happen for you this year? Maybe you will move house, change jobs, lose your cat, develop an allergy, take up salsa dancing, learn Swahili “¦

The Bible encourages us to have dreams and visions, for without them we ‘perish’. If we aim at nothing, that’s what we are sure to hit. Whereas if we know what we are striving for, what the goals are, we are more likely to make some headway.

An American teacher was told by scientists that 7 young people in her class would achieve incredible results because of tests that they’d done on those children. By the end of the year sure enough those 7 had indeed achieved way beyond the others. But what the teacher did not know was that those children were actually chosen completely at random. It was because of HER expectations and the extra support she gave those students that those young people fulfilled their potential.

We have a God who has great expectations of us. Not because He enjoys giving us things we can’t achieve, but because in Him ALL things are possible. We are not chosen at random but hand-picked and given all that we need to achieve what God has set out for us to do. Let us expect great things, not of ourselves but of Him working through us.