Expectant with no expectations

If anyone knows Howard Bowen, Dot's husband, they know that one of his infamous phrases is, “have no expectations.” We are sinful creatures and we deserve nothing, everything we have is already more than we deserve.  So live with no expectations because God owes us nothing. It is a wise and great thing to take hold of, but for me, it puts me in the middle of one of my greatest battles.  How do I live with expectancy, yet with no expectations?  I certainly do not have the answer to this yet, but I’m beginning to see the difference.  Living with expectancy is simply waiting on God to do something amazing, to intercede for us, fight for us, make beauty out of ashes.  He promises all of those things.  Living with expectations has more demand. Expecting God to give me this or that.  He may very well give us this or that, but what if what we are expecting isn’t good for us?  Then God would be going against His very nature.  It all boils down to the simple fact that we know nothing.  We have no idea what is good for us, no idea what will make us happy at the end of the day.  We may be expecting something that we think is amazing and God is looking down the road and seeing that that very thing will destroy us.  If we live with expectancy that God is going to do amazing things then we live our life watching and waiting for that.  It tunes our ears and eyes on Him and not on the particular thing that we are praying for.  He may very well give us that exact prayer, and praise Him for that, but if He doesn’t…praise Him for the no.  It all goes back to the simple fact: we know nothing and He is all knowing.  We can’t see past this moment and He sees the future.  We do not know the heart of man, but He searches every corner of our hearts.  We have to know the God we serve.  We have to spend time with Him in order to know what to expect from Him.  If we know He is good, we will live with expectancy for Him to do something good.  If we don’t believe He is good, we won’t know what to expect and we go back to trusting ourselves and living with expectation instead of expectancy.