Expect the Best to Get Rid of Stress

Is expecting the best just a positive thinking, worldly idea that is really a bunch of nonsense and won’t help your stress?  No! I’ll show you from the Bible today Jesus’ take on this subject and 4 ways you can apply it to your life.

Have you heard this quote before?

“Expect the best, prepare for the worst.”

Or how about this one…

“Expect the worst and you’ll never be disappointed.”

Or...

“Don’t expect too much. It’s always better to be surprised than disappointed.”

There are a lot of ideas out there about what we should expect but the only ones we need concern ourselves with are from the Bible.  

In Mark 9 the father of a demon-possessed child came to Jesus and said, “But please, if you’re able to do something, anything—have compassion on us and help us!” Jesus said to him, “What do you mean ‘if’? If you are able to believe, all things are possible to the believer.” (verses 22-23 TPT).  

In Matthew 19:16 AMP we read, “But Jesus looked at them and said, 'With men this is impossible, but all things are possible with God.'”

Let’s read one more...Matthew 17:20 TPT “He told them, ‘It was because of your lack of faith. I promise you, if you have faith inside of you no bigger than the size of a small mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move away from here and go over there,’ and you will see it move! There is nothing you couldn’t do!’”  Other translations say that last line like this: “Nothing will be beyond your power,”  “Nothing is higher or stronger than you,” and “Nothing will be impossible to you.”

These three verses tell us the expectation we should have.  We should expect the best because nothing is impossible for our God.  It’s not just positive or wishful thinking. It is a reality in God's kingdom.

Norman Vincent Peale said, “Learn to use one of the most powerful laws in this world; change your mental habits to belief instead of disbelief.  Learn to expect, not to doubt. In so doing, you bring everything into the realm of possibility.”

So, here are 4 ways to expect the best:

1. Train your mind to expect, not doubt. When you’ve been doubting for a long time, this will take some intentionality and time.  Mark 11: 22-24 “Jesus replied, 'Let the faith of God be in you! Listen to the truth I speak to you: If someone says to this mountain with great faith and having no doubt, ‘Mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the midst of the sea,’ and believes that what he says will happen, it will be done. This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—believe that you have received it and it will be yours.'”  
   
   
   The mountain in this verse represents what is stressing you.  But if you will expect the best, if you will believe and not doubt that mountain will crumble.  I teach my coaching clients to work on one mountain that is defeating you at a time and not the whole mountain range.
   
   
2. Know what you want.  When expecting the best in life, you can’t be aimless.  You have to have a goal. Lots of people get nowhere in life simply because they do not know where they want to go.
   
   
3. Act like you expect the best.  A famous trapeze artist had a student that was afraid of falling.  He was frozen in fear and saying, “I can’t do it!” The instructor put his arm around the boy and told him, “Son, you can do it, and I will tell you how.  Throw your heart over the bar and your body will follow.”
   
   
4. Never mention the worst.  Don’t even think of it.  Completely saturate your mind with the best.  Whatever you give time to in your mind grows, so don’t nurture the worst.  Make expecting the best your dominating thought.

We honor the word of God when we simply accept what we see there as truth and apply it to our lives even if at the beginning we can’t completely understand how that would work, or it seems too simple or too hard or we don’t know anyone else doing it.  Reread the amazing verses in this article and read them as if they were literally true...because they are.

You’re going to see your stress levels diminish drastically as you start to expect the best and get it.