What Do You Expect?

The Secret Door to Success, by Florence Scovel Shinn, [1941], at sacred-texts.com

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?

According to your faith be it unto you.—Matt. 9:29

Faith is expectancy, "According to your faith, be it unto you."

We might say, according to your expectancies be it done unto you; so, what are you expecting?

We hear people say: "We expect the worst to happen," or "The worst is yet to come." They are deliberately inviting the worst to come.

We hear others say: "I expect a change for the better." They are inviting better conditions into their lives.

Change your expectancies and you change your conditions.

How can you change your expectancies, when you have formed the habit of expecting loss, lack or failure?

Begin to act as if you expected success, happiness and abundance; prepare for your good.

Do something to show you expect it to come. Active faith alone, will impress the subconscious.

If you have spoken the word for a home, prepare for it immediately, as if you hadn't a moment to lose. Collect little ornaments, table-cloths, etc. etc.!

I knew a woman who made the giant swing into faith, by buying a large arm-chair; a chair meant business, she bought a large and comfortable chair, for she was preparing for the right man. He came.

Someone will say, "Suppose you haven't money to buy ornaments or a chair?" Then look in shop windows and link with them in thought.

Get in their vibration: I sometimes hear people say; "I don't go into the shops because I can't afford to buy anything." That is just the reason you should go into the shops. Begin to make friends with the things you desire or require.

I know a woman who wanted a ring. She went boldly to the ring department and tried on rings.

It gave her such a realization of ownership, that not long after, a friend made her a gift of a ring. "You combine with what you notice."

Keep on noticing beautiful things, and you make an invisible contact. Sooner or later these things are drawn into your life, unless you say, "Poor me, too good to be true."

"My soul, wait thou only upon God: for my expectation is from Him." This is a most important statement from the 62nd Psalm.

The soul is the subconscious mind, and the psalmist was telling his subconscious to expect everything directly from the universal; not to depend upon doors and channels; "My expectation is from Him."

God cannot fail, for "His ways are ingenious, His methods are sure."

You can expect any seemingly impossible Good from God; if you do not limit the channels.

Do not say how you want it done, or how it can't be done.

"God is the Giver and the Gift and creates His own amazing channels."

Take the following statement: I cannot be separated from God the Giver, therefore, I cannot be separated from God the Gift. The gift is God in action.

Get the realization that every blessing is Good in action, and see God in every face and good in every situation: This makes you master of all conditions.

A woman came to me saying that there was no heat in the radiators in their apartment, and that her mother was suffering from the cold. She added, "The landlord has declared that we can't have heat until a certain date:" I replied, "God is your landlord." She said, "That's all I want to know," and rushed out. That evening the heat was turned on without asking. It was because she realized that the landlord was God in manifestation.

This is a wonderful age, for people are becoming Miracle Minded; it is in the air.

Quoting from an article which I found in the New York Journal and American by John Anderson, it corroborates what I have just said.

The title of the article is "Theatre Goers Make Hits of Metaphysical Plays."

If, said a cynical manager, who shall be called Brock Pemberton, with a slight accent of sarcasm in his voice, the other night, on an intermission curbside talk, you fellows, meaning the critics, know so much about what the New York public wants, why don't you tell me what to produce? Why don't you run me into business instead of out of it? "Why don't you tell me what sort of play the play-goers want to see?" "I would," I said, "But you wouldn't believe it."

"You're hedging," he said, "You don't know, and you're trying to cover up by pretending to know more than you're willing to say. You haven't any more idea than I have this minute what sort of plays generally succeed."

"I have," I said, "there is one sure fire success; one theme that works and has always worked, whether it is competing with boy meets girl, mysteries, historical tragedies, etc.; no play on the theme has ever completely failed if it had any merit at all, and a lot of poor ones have been big hits."

"You're stalling again," said Mr. Pemberton, "What sort of plays are they?"

"Metaphysical," I said, fouling slightly with a big word and waiting quietly for the effect. "Metaphysical," said Mr. Pemberton, "You mean metaphysical?"

I paused a moment and since Mr. Pemberton said nothing, went right on spouting such titles as "The Green Pastures," "The Star Wagon," "Father Malachy's Miracle!, etc." "Some of these," I added, "reached the public over the heads of the critics." But Mr. Pemberton had departed to ask probably, in every theatre in town, "Is there a metaphysician in the house?"

People are beginning to realize the power of their words and thoughts. They understand why "Faith is the substance of the thing hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

We see the law of expectancy working out through superstition.

If you walk under a ladder and expect it to give you bad luck, it will give you bad luck. The ladder is quite innocent; bad luck came because you expected it.

We might say, expectancy is the substance of the things hoped for; or expectancy is the substance of the thing man fears; "The thing I expected has come upon me."

Nothing as too good to be true, nothing is too wonderful to happen, nothing is too good to last; when you look to God for your good.

Now think of the blessings which seem so far off, and begin to expect them now, under grace, in an unexpected way; for God works in unexpected ways, His wonders to perform.

I was told that there are three thousand promises in the Bible.

Let us now expect all these blessings to come to pass. Among them we are promised Riches and Honor, Eternal Youth ("Your flesh shall become as a little child's) and Eternal Life, "death itself shall be overcome."

Christianity as founded upon the forgiveness of sins and an empty tomb.

We now know that all these things are scientifically possible.

As we call on the law of forgiveness, we become free from mistakes and the consequences of mistakes. ("Though your sins be as scarlet ye shall be washed whiter than wool.")

Then our bodies will be bathed in Light, and express the "body electric," which is incorruptible and indestructible, pure substance, expressing perfection.

I expect the unexpected, my glorious good now comes to pass.