"I should be grateful for scraps and low expectations instead of asking for more."
How it sounds in your head: People tell you to be grateful you can do anything at all. Your teachers praise you for trying, not for excellence. You're supposed to smile and accept the participation trophy while other girls compete for real prizes. Wanting more feels greedy and ungrateful.
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us."
-- Ephesians 3:20World applies lower standards to disabled people, making excellence seem unreasonable and gratitude for less seem virtuous.
People literally do tell you to lower your expectations and be grateful. Compared to worst-case scenarios, your life could be harder. Asking for more feels like complaining about blessings.
Husband dead, creditors literally coming to take her two sons as slaves for debt, only had one jar of oil left. Elisha said gather EMPTY VESSELS - 'do not gather just a few.' Oil multiplied until vessels ran out. Sold oil, paid ALL debt, lived on the rest. From losing children to debt-free abundance in ONE AFTERNOON.
I REFUSE the lie that I should be grateful for scraps and low expectations. IT IS WRITTEN God is able to do exceedingly abundantly ABOVE all I ask or think - He's not a God of barely-enough or settle-for-less. I am not called to gratitude for limitations but faith for breakthrough. The BARAK blessing says I will LEND to many nations and borrow from NONE - that's abundance language, not scarcity. IT IS WRITTEN I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me - not some things, not low-expectation things, ALL things. I ask big, believe big, expect big because I serve a BIG God.
The Father isn't pleased when you settle for less and call it gratitude - He's pleased when you ask boldly for the abundance He already prepared. Like the widow who was told 'don't gather just a few' vessels, God wants to give you MORE than enough, not barely-enough.