Skip to main content

Do we have big enough expectations?

 Do we have big enough expectations?

 

How do you define hope?  Do you define it as most of the world has come to define it which is basically wishing?  Actually, hope is to have an expectation for something or that something will happen and this is especially true in a Biblical context. 

Take a look at the following verses and every time you read hope say expectation.  

 

Romans 15:4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. 

 

Romans 15:12-13 And again, Isaiah says: “There shall be a root of Jesse; And He who shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, In Him the Gentiles shall hope.” 13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

 

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

 

When we pray do, we really expect what we are praying for to happen?  Could it be that we don’t have a faith problem but a hope/expectation problem because we are limiting our faith by not expecting?  

What do you think would happen if we really expected everything that God has said, promised even, was for us?  For example, what if instead of wishing that God would heal someone when we prayed for them to be healed, we instead just laid hands on the person expecting them to be healed? (Mark 16:17) 

Could it be that the reason for so much worry and anxiety in the church is that we don’t have big enough expectations?  Do we know the scriptures enough to have big enough expectations?

I will end this with the best example I know of.  When I go to get money from my bank account, I go with the expectation that they are going to give me the amount I put down on the withdrawal slip.  I have no doubts and don’t ask them for it or beg for it.  Before I go to the bank, I know how much money that is in my account and so I 100% confidence that any amount up to the total balance that is there I can get.  Why do we not have the same confidence to expect what God has provided for us?

 

Now may the God of expectation fill us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in expectation by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Price and Cost for more of God and His Presence

  The Price and Cost for more of God and His Presence I was reading an account of a preacher’s experience that I had previous heard him describe before in a sermon. Thought the account was familiar to me this time though it hit different.   The experience was during a time he had spent months desiring and seeking more of God and His Presence.  There were two statements that the preacher made from this account that the Lord highlighted for me.  The first was “My request for more of God carried a price” and the second was from his cry to the Lord “I must have more of You at any cost!”. These statements when I had heard them before sounded very true and I totally had agreed with them.  In fact, they had inspired me.  This time, though, was different.  This time there was at first, for a moment fear and not a Godly fear.  No, it was a fear that the price I would have to pay would be the cost of the life of one or mor...
1 comment
Read more

Fragrance

  Fragrance   2 Corinthians 2:14-15   Now thanks  be  to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.  15  For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.   Today in a prayer meeting someone mentioned the word fragrance as they were praying. The first thing that popped into my head was of a college student who had come into my store yesterday.  This young man had gone a little overboard, in my opinion, with his cologne.  It was so strong that I could smell him coming.  I also have customers who come in to the store with a different type of fragrance, one that isn’t pleasant.  In both cases you can smell them before you even see them and also the fragrance sticks around for a while after they leave.  The point of this being that fragrance influences and ...
Post a Comment
Read more