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.