I was at RibCrib one day and, not for the first time, thought, man, they sure loaded this bowl with a ton of lettuce.

When you think you have a lot of lettuce in your bowl, just remember you ordered a salad.

— Summer (@NotYourSeason) June 29, 2024

It’s a good thing that they loaded it up with lettuce because 1) it’s a salad and 2) more lettuce, more value.

Do we ever notice how God is the same way with what He gives us?

We’re not just blessed, but blessed in abundance.

Sometimes we, or at least I, look at life and see things I’m working toward and have mixed feelings with low expectations. I just want this, I don’t need anything else.

God, over and over again, has blessed me in the past far greater than my expectations. He blesses and gives not only things we ask for, but in ways that are even more, what we never asked for.

In a trivial example here, I’d prefer more chicken than lettuce. I also order the salad with no tomato. But it’s a salad and so the main ingredient is lettuce. With what God gives, He gives in love. Out of His love for us, He gives us in abundance.

Unsurprisingly, whatever He gives we may not have even asked for. He knows our needs before we do. What He gives is the right amount at the right time.

The things we hope for and the things revealed to us are different because we set low expectations. I always have low expectations and this year I’ve felt convicted that I don’t believe (fully, wholeheartedly) things will happen at all so I just want something good to happen without fully believing that God will deliver in abundance.

If that’s you today, I just want to encourage you, like I’ve been by a simple experience, that we can expect big things from our God and raise our expectations. He is going to deliver and it’s going to be not only for our good, but a true testimony to what He is capable of – our Almighty, Sovereign God.

As we enter the last half of this year, I’m wanting to raise my expectations, my standards, and look for God in more things and more ways, because He’s there and He’s delivering every day, but I miss Him in the every day. This year, I’m going to expect more because I’m going to look more.

What I’m after, He’s going to provide.

What we get may be different from what we ordered, but it’s always better than what we ourselves had in mind.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

Psalm 23:1

For from His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

John 1:16

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

John 15:7