Exit With Expectations

The speaker talks about their current situation of moving houses and the challenges they are facing. They reflect on the importance of letting go of expectations and embracing the unknown. They discuss the struggle of comparing themselves to others and feeling like God's blessings are not for them. They encourage listeners to shift their mindset and have faith that something better awaits them. They share their personal experience and offer support to those going through similar situations. They emphasize the need for honesty and finding oneself in the stories of the Bible. Hello Monday friends okay I don't know about you maybe you've gotten to go last week and put your feet in the sand or maybe your toes in the snow I don't know if you went on spring break I hope you had a fantastic time and you are rejuvenated. I on the other hand listen we we about to talk about a subject that I needed so I don't know I might be doing this podcast for me and me alone but that's okay I can do it but we're going to talk how we exit with expectations and right now while y'all been in the sand in the snow and I don't know maybe you just been spending time with your kids whatever it is I am packing up my whole house and you know when you've lived somewhere for like 10 to 12 years you have a lot of stuff and you're like wow I don't need half this stuff you know like I have a napkin that one of my kids sneezed on one time and you know I have to keep it because it was his first sneeze or like people I got a lot of stuff I'm a I'm kind of a low-key hoarder because I like memories and I write on the back of everything you know like this is the first shell we ever found on our first trip and and I'm like okay and it was so funny because my son was helping me pack some stuff and he's like mom you know you don't have to keep every bit of memorabilia because we have the memories in our hearts and I just busted out laughing okay so maybe that's a helpful tip for some of you guys that are like me and you keep everything but while I was moving and while I was packing things okay my husband of course is unemployed and you know he got laid off two days before Christmas we're selling our house we were selling our house no matter what we just feel like it's time for a change so that's not there they're not one in the same or because of each other but it's just weird we don't we don't know where we're going we felt like God say put your house on the market without knowing where you're going which I'm a planner I don't do things like this my son is trying to stay in Nashville over the summer like so we're trying to move him in somewhere you know I have my mom who is has dementia and I'm trying to move her somewhere like we're all moving and I'm just like that's so weird and I'm packing up memories of my house and I am a basket case you guys like I'm crying constantly like oh my god I can't believe these moments have passed and then have you ever just noticed yourself in times like that you can start to just wish for the good old days instead of think about what lies ahead and I listen that has been happening to me and so I decided I needed to go for a walk this is this is what I do to regulate myself to get myself back in order you know swear I feel God most on a walk with my dog hearing the birds chirp not hearing the ding of the phone that I just heard in the background you know just like all the things and one day after crying a lot I took my dog for a walk and I was just you know going about my normal walk and and I hear God and hadn't heard him in a really long time it didn't feel like and I heard him say could you look at this as the opportunity to exit with expectations instead of extreme disappointment and I'm like okay first of all I don't talk like that so I knew it was God and I was like exit with expectations you mean like exit my home God but I as I sat with that sentence for a while I knew it meant more than that like exit how I feel about that maybe there's nothing as good as what I've left behind coming ahead does that make sense like like maybe the best years of my life were raising those kids and maybe those are gone and you know just like maybe my mom getting ready to depart this earth not remembering her whole life like you know I don't know but I just lumped it all in this in in the you know same basket as no not just he doesn't mean physically exit this house with expectations I knew he meant exit the parts of your soul that have been feeling heavy that have been feeling grieved that have been feeling like oh the best is not to come it was behind and I was like okay wow okay so I I knew I had to share this because I know the value of vulnerability I have experienced it in my you know counseling group for the past four years and there's a value in bringing what you are struggling with to the light there's such value and you know when our circumstances feel so constantly broken and unsure that is when we become isolated in our soul about how we feel and we become insecure and I believe we become insecure in and how we feel about God how we feel about ourselves and I want to concentrate on that this morning because you know at the same time I was asked to speak at this Bible study in this gorgeous neighborhood most expensive homes ever in in the whole DFW Metroplex and I go to this home and I was in the bathroom you guys and I was like okay this wallpaper is exquisite and I start touching the wallpaper and I'm like they have more exquisite wallpaper than I've ever had in my entire life and I was just so like aware of my lack in the midst of someone's abundance do you know what I'm saying and I believe that that's the place he wants me to exit and so maybe somewhere in your life right now you're lacking something or you feel like oh my gosh I need to exit this relationship this feeling this emotion of depression this feeling that my best days are past this feeling that nothing ever goes right for me this feeling that God doesn't want to use me this feeling that God doesn't want to answer my prayers whatever it is let's focus our mind on that for the next 20 minutes because I believe that we can look at God performing miracles and changing people's lives and transforming others with such like happiness that that's happening for them and still sit in our doubt that he'll do it for us hmm oh my god I don't even know what I just said but I my heart needed it so that's what I want to exit this morning is feeling like that God is going to do everything for everyone else but me I want to exit that with an expectation that God is going to in my own personal circumstance right now bring me the right home bring us the right thing bring me the right place for my mom bring me the right place for my son all at the same time you know because sometimes it's easier to believe for everyone else but us so have you ever noticed sometimes you can be in a room full of people and you're recognizing all the ways that God has met their needs I'm just telling you this happens to me you're just you're just so aware like it's so on the forefront like it's right there in front of your face you're like God's recognizing their needs in this area and in that area and in this place and what do I got like God are you even there you know like you're so aware of what you need from God and that seems so out of reach like is he ever going to do it for me like it's not going to happen and you become so aware that you need God's reality to fall fresh and heavy and close and real and so in your face that it's just so hard to deny that that was him do you see that's where I met maybe some of y'all are right there and we are crossing the intersection together but right now that's where I'm at and sometimes when I'm there I think man I wish I lived in the days where Jesus was because then I wouldn't be like this because I would have seen him do miracles and change people's lives right in front of me and I just feel like I would be so much more repentant and willing to live differently right because I saw him do what he did as the son of God but let's not kid a kidder would I did they you see what I'm saying and what I've noticed about myself is I'm quick to applaud when God and other people are being repentant and they position their hearts to see Jesus work miracles in their lives right and sometimes I live like it's that same kind of thing that same kind of miracle is just not possible for me that's where I want to exit and I want to exit there with an expectation that what lies ahead of me is better than what I've just left behind oh somebody are you with me I don't know I don't know if you are I don't know where you're at today what you're needing to believe for what you're needing to exit with an expectation that God has something bigger than what you just left I don't care if it was from your childhood or yesterday but I want you to know I'm with you we're at the same intersection we're pushing the big button to cross that street together and you know and the light flashes on not the big hand but that it's okay to walk there whatever that is whatever that space is you know sometimes just knowing someone else is going through that makes it well in your soul I'm telling you I've been there and I am there and that sometimes makes another person go okay if she's there I can be okay too and let's think of that so we're there at that place crossing the street together and when we cross the street that's when we need to say to ourselves this is the place where the shift needs to happen mm-hmm you know I love when shift happens if the shift needs to happen in our mind so that the shift can happen in our heart and what the shift needs to be is I'm going to exit this place whatever the place is remember it can be a place where a problem needs to be solved in your life a circumstance that's been out of control you know a decision that hasn't been made and you're so out of sorts because it's not you know been made yet a feeling of depression or anxiety or that God's never going to do what he's done for Sally for you those places is where the shift needs to happen so I had to bring the word because there's just I find myself in the pages and I heard my brother from another mother say this if we could be as honest with ourselves as the Bible that we read then we would get a lot farther and I'm telling you you can find yourself in the stories of the word and that's what I love to do and in Luke 8 I find myself at this moment in this time of my life with the woman in the crowd that had suffered greatly for 12 years with slow bleeding okay now listen we know that that was you know slow bleeding in the menstrual area right well let me just tell you the slow bleeding for us in today's world can be maybe you've been suffering in a in a tumultuous marriage maybe you've been suffering feeling the way I'm feeling right now like that God is answering everyone else's prayers but yours maybe you've been suffering thinking you know I don't even know what I feel about church what I feel about myself what I feel about my community what I feel about my friends you know like I don't know what your bleeding is but listen don't think of that just as her physical ailment relate that to where you're suffering or your troubles are right now so it says in the crowd that day was a woman who had suffered greatly for 12 years from slow bleeding even though she had spent all that she had on healers come on you know listen I've tried essential oils I've tried you know chiropractors that you know release me from things that I'm allergic to I've tried you know gluten-free natural vegan quit drinking drink you know I have had my share of healer things that I think would heal me do you see what I'm saying listen apply that to you right there even though she had spent all she had on healers she was still suffering come on somebody that's where I'm at packing my house right now she was still suffering but it says pressing in come on that word pressing pressing in through the crowd she came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of his garment instantly her bleeding stopped and she was healed Jesus suddenly stopped and said to his disciples okay someone touched me who was it and they're all like and I love Peter no she's love Peter listen brother everyone is touching you trying to get close to you the crowds are so thick we can't walk through all these people without being jostled I love that the TPT version says we can't even walk through these people without being jostled and Jesus replies yes but I felt power surge through me so what that means is somebody touched me and healing went from me and they received it when the woman realized she couldn't stay hidden any longer hmm when the woman realized she couldn't stay hidden any longer that's that sentence is for somebody right there she came and fell trembling at Jesus's feet before the entire crowd she declared I was desperate to touch you I was desperate to touch you Jesus for I knew if I could just touch even the fringe of your garment I would be healed Jesus responded beloved daughter it's the first time he called somebody that in Scripture by the way beloved daughter put your name right there beloved Carrie your faith in me released your healing you may go with peace people people just just read it for yourselves it's why don't people read the word why didn't I read it for so long of my life listen it is so good and here are three tips for you and I to grasp on to like the fringe of his garment right now and say to ourselves this is the way I need to exit whatever I'm needing to exit from with an expectation and that is number one I got to start being real about my suffering be real about your suffering because what does it say she's been suffering for a very long time 12 years she spent everything she had on healers and she was still suffering you got you got to be real don't deny it don't pretend it away don't pickleball it away don't drink it away be real about the place where you're struggling and when we do right when we have suffered with multiple things and circumstances going on in our life all at the same time let me have let me tell you what happens we get in this loop in our mind it's like this loop that we can't get out of I call it the discouragement loop we just looped in it we going round and round and round and if you're like Carrie you're going nothing seems to ever go right for me oh my gosh everybody has the perfect house everybody has the perfect family I you know we get roped into thinking no God doesn't listen to my prayers he listens to everyone else's prayers oh she got her other miracle oh she wrote her next book oh she's speaking here she's doing this we get looped into that and before you know it we're at a stop sign and somebody runs that thing and we're like of course they ran this stop sign in front of me we're in the discouragement loop but right there right then what it means to be suffering what it means to be real about that place as you go uh-oh Carrie you in a loop and you have to make a decision to get out of it like you got to recognize it and go uh-oh I might be in a loop and what did she do she made a decision that she was tired of suffering mostly in her mind about how she felt about still bleeding I'm telling you she made a decision that with God there's always a way and with her faith combined she was going to find it hmm with her faith combined with his supernatural strength she was going to find it she made the decision let's you and me make a decision I'm in a loop get me out of the loop my best days are ahead of me not behind me and it doesn't mean that I'm weak or that I failed some way because I'm in the discouragement loop it just means that we got to make the decision to get out and the first part of the decision is being real about the suffering and go you know what you're right I got stuck thinking that my best days are behind me I got stuck thinking God's not going to come through in this season of my life of where am I going what am I doing and I I need to get out of it I'm tired of dealing with it and how I deal with my problems you know has to come from being real and so listen if you don't want to tell anybody and be vulnerable that way start a vulnerable journey journal I call it my vulnerability journal and I just talked to my journal I write stuff down that I'm struggling with and leave it there that's where I'm vulnerable if I don't have a friend or a group or a counselor or somebody that I can tell write it in a vulnerability journal do whatever you can to have an outward expression that you're tired of feeling this way go outside with your dog like I do and say you know what God I'm tired of feeling this way and that's how you be real about your suffering and that day she was real about her suffering because she was like oh no I've tried everything I've tried all kinds of stuff there ain't no essential oil gonna get this out of me I'm still suffering so I'm making the decision to do something so be real about your suffering and here's the decision number two begin to press in begin to press in now you're like where do I go how do I press in let me tell you I love this because it says that she was pressing in through the crowd mmm now this this gonna hurt you it hurts me too in a world where there's noise upon noise upon noise upon noise you got to press in through the crowded voices of social media through the crowded voices of all your text threads through all the ways that you tell people oh my gosh I'm so busy you know busy is a form of noise right even your friends voices sometimes you have to press in past those into the place of your faith with you and Jesus that's it and be willing to leave like you're willing to leave the past I'm willing to leave that piece of napkin where my kids sneezed on it behind and go you know what that was not my best days it was good days but I got more better and good days coming ahead the past thoughts about your past feelings and you know sever what is behind and press on to what lies ahead that's scriptural we got to press in to the place of our faith and press on to what lies ahead and this is often as simple as recognizing that you made the decision to get out of this discouragement loop even that is a form of pressing in see you know sometimes when one thing goes wrong we equate it to everything going wrong in your life you know like and you tell yourself you know I'm in the loop and this is the place that I need for shift to happen and then watch yourself the energy in your mind and in your soul you're going to say oh gosh my whole day isn't ruined this one thing that person ran a stop sign that one thing might have been ruined but this isn't all the other things that are happening in my life stop over dramaticizing it Carrie that's what I tell myself this is this is about one thing right and listen for us to see victory in those places in exiting our feelings with expectations or exiting our circumstances with expectations is realizing that we have embraced the capacity and we are ready to shift and reset and embrace what is next we need to realize that we have embraced our capacity we had capacity and now we need to shift we need to shift to happen in our mind and in our heart and reset and embrace what is next and it happens by doing one thought at a time one prayer at a time the next right thing and the next right thing the next right step that's how we beat the enemy step-by-step into our future pressing in through the crowd pressing in through other voices into the only voice that matters that's where it starts press into the Lord be curious not condemning of yourself what's the next right decision in your life that's when you know everything starts to you know shift and start to become the place where you were called to be so number one be real about your suffering number two start pressing in and then number three expect your faith to be released mmm expect faith to be released I love this one this is what I need right here because the scripture says when Jesus responded he said beloved daughter I want you to say to yourself beloved whatever your name is that's you and me your faith in me released the healing see we had a part to play God ain't gonna just zap everything from my mind and make carry better instantly he's saying when you combine your faith with me right I'm having faith in my situation that God has a better place for me next right that's how I continue the next right thing and my faith in him when that's combined with his supernatural power that's when he releases the next right answer in place of our healing the next right decision the next right choice whatever it is the next right emotion and it's because we had faith in him and we were curious and not condemning mmm and it's getting us out of that discouragement loop that nothing ever goes right when we have faith that we could bring out of the bad mood of the bad day or the seemingly unsolvable situation or major event or circumstance after circumstance that's happening in our lives and sometimes it's a simple as doing that next right thing and releasing our faith in him and that's when I believe our healing begins and this is not a works mentality it's not like okay you have to do XYZ to get this it's not like that but it's simply a combined effort it's a partnership with you and God with me and him expect faith to be released don't exit with excess trouble expect to exit with expectations for the next great thing in your life when your faith is added to him who press in press in and expect faith to be released mmm I love it so much I know you're probably listening and you're like thinking to yourself that I'm saying this is easy I'm not and if you know me personally it's probably easier to believe that but if you don't know me personally let me just tell you that life is so much more complicated and complex I totally understand that than me just packing up my home and going through what I'm going through you probably have something so much more complex and you know complicated happening and sometimes that can feel like a complete bloodbath and I get it I've been there too and that's when it feels like leaving the past behind whatever it is from our childhood or five minutes ago that's when it feels like that's not I'm not capable of that but let me tell you we both are don't keep our energy on poor pitiful us listen when God is going to move me when he's going to move my house and and me in and your problems and all the things that we're going through let me tell you what happens he is shifting us and he's shifting our mindsets into when we think why didn't God ever come through for me or why can't things ever go my way or why do I always have a bad day it means shifting those mindsets every single day into these mindsets with God all things are possible I'm going to press on to what lies ahead leaving the past behind whatever it is even if it's five minutes ago the God who called me to it is going to bring me through it God is for me who can be against me it's shifting all those sentences into sentences like that and then being curious not condemning of ourselves asking questions to God like what do I need to do what do I need to exit is it the gloom and doom mindset is it that mindset that says nothing good is ever going to happen to me or is it you know a mindset of that God's not working in my life if I need to exit those things with expectations it starts with the decision right it starts with the decision to be loving of myself right listen let's get our expectations up and exit feeling you know grief and sadness in the woe with me mindset that some of us can't seem to get out of and listen there are big things coming up for you and me let's press on to what lies ahead because I promise you there are better days what does the scripture say it says my my former my my latter days no my former days will be better than my latter days that that is what it is what is coming up for us is bigger than what we just went through mmm listen I needed this I don't know if y'all did but I'm I'm gonna exit all kinds of emotions and places with expectations of what God can do and speaking of that I'm expecting big things happening at unlocked ministries and one of the things that is happening right now y'all some of y'all have gone to our made to shine conferences and we're going to continue those in many ways and in many fashions and you know we have our retreats our unlocked retreats coming up we have one in the spring April 11th through the 13th and one in the fall and if you have not registered for one of these what are you waiting for because I believe as a believer we all need to get away from what does it say we need to press on press in through the crowd all the voices that happen in our lives every day sometimes we have to get away to a new place to get a new perspective and I am a firm believer and I've watched it to be fruitful and so if you have never gone on one of our unlocked retreats I'd love for you to register for one because I'm telling you the alone times the activities the group sessions the teachings I'm telling you you're going to come away from that place with new expectations and new vision for the year and listen to get a new revelation sometimes we got to get to a new place so go register for one of those retreats at unlocked ministries calm and also we have our shine sisterhood the this is launched from our made-to-shine conferences because we want to form a community that's safe to be vulnerable in it's launching April 2nd so if you have not joined the sisterhood listen if you want a safe environment a safe place to talk about hard things we're just going to help you be have an emotional compass for you that's what we're going to do we're going to keep the podcast but our podcast has a new and exciting revamp to it you know I've been doing this for three years and we are revamping it and because of our all of our new branding the podcast is now going to instead of being called living unlocked it's going to be called she shines I love it she shines it's on Spotify and all the platforms and listen we're going to start having other people's testimonies and stories and conversations so listen you want to be a part of all of this so go to unlocked ministries calm join the shine sisterhood and listen I have enjoyed this one I needed this maybe more than some of y'all but I I needed it let's exit where we've been with expectations God's about to move and I'm ready to be a part of it I'm going to join my faith with his supernatural power I hope you'll join me okay girls we'll talk again next week