Living With An Expectation

Today we continue our series entitled, “Back to the Bible,” with Part 29.  We have been looking at Psalm 119.  Let’s continue to walk through this amazing psalm.  Today we will only look at one verse, verse 82, from The Passion Bible Translation.

David said:

(v.82)  I’m consumed with longings for your promises, so I ask, “When will they all come true?”

So what does this mean to you today?  A few things.

1.   When you truly live by every Word God speaks to you, you find yourself putting God’s Words in two categories: instructions and promises.  Some things God says are things you must do now. These are instructions to obey. Other things God says are things He is going to do for you.  Most of these will not happen immediately. These are promises to believe, claim and live in expectation of. When you have direction from God to do something, you get to control how fast you comply with God’s commands.  The goal is to do it quickly. Delayed obedience is disobedience. But when you have a promise from God you have NO CONTROL over how fast God will do what He said. God told you WHAT, but most of the time He will not tell you WHEN!  This leaves you in a position to live your life with an expectation that God will do what He said He would do in your life. If you truly believe God, you will wake up every morning with a yearning to SEE what God SAID!

2.  David said he was literally CONSUMED with longing for the promises of God to come to pass in his life.  He lived every day with an expectation that God would do what He said He would do. This is how we are supposed to live.

3.  If you are Christian and you have no expectation of God, you are not believing God for anything, and you are not waiting on the manifestation of any promises, then you are NOT living a life of faith.  We are called and commanded to walk and live by faith. Faith begins where the will of God is known. You must know what God said BEFORE you can have faith in it. Once you do, once you have a promise to claim, you are then in position to live in expectation of the manifestation of it.  This expectation is what makes life with God so exciting. When you have a myriad of things you are expecting from God, and you know they can happen AT ANY TIME, you enter every day with a spring in your step, a song in your heart and a smile on your face. So my question to you is: what are you expecting from God?  It shouldn’t be just one thing. You should have a list of things God has promised you that have not come to pass yet. Go over that list. Fill your heart with expectation. Live in anticipation. If you do, your life will be filled with HOPE and your heart will be open to receive as soon as God says THE TIME HAS COME!

4.  Don’t get frustrated while you are waiting on God.  I will share my heart with you on this last point. David’s Son, Solomon, said, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Prov 13:12).  That was from the New International Version.  The Easy-to-Read Version of this same verse reads, “Hope that is delayed makes you sad, but a wish that comes true fills you with joy.”  While the latter part of the verse is what we are all waiting on (the joy that comes when we finally receive what God said), we must protect our heart from the first part of the verse.  If you are not careful, you can wait so long on God to do something that you get bitter about it, to the point where you don’t want to think about it anymore. I have been there. While waiting on God to do what He said He would do can be amazing, and it can fill your heart with expectation and anticipation, when days to turn weeks, weeks turn into months and months turn into years, it can be hard to keep your expectation up.  Being fully transparent, when you live the life of faith there will be things that God reveals to you, that are yours, that have already happened in eternity but they have not happened in time yet, things that He expects you to believe Him for, but many of these things will not actually manifest in the earth for years. Since you don’t know when it will happen, you live with an expectation, and if your expectation is pure, there will be times when you THINK it is about to happen.  On those occasions you get your hopes up, you prepare your heart to receive, and it is almost as if you start to thank God in advance for helping you wait as long as you did. You get excited about it and relieved that the wait is over. And then, if it does not happen, the disappointment can hurt pretty bad. I’ve been there. This just happened to me about a month ago. But never allow that disappointment to keep you from believing again. If God said it, it will happen. If He promised it, it shall come to pass.  As a matter of fact, for God, in heaven, it has already happened. For you, in the earth, it is only a matter of TIME. So never stop believing. Never allow the sting of disappointment to keep you from getting your hopes us again. When the fullness of time comes you will RECEIVE in your hands, what God already REVEALED in your heart.

Closing Confession:  

Father, this is a season of expectation for me.  I live by every Word You speak to me. I stand on every promise You have made to me.  I live with an expectation of manifestation. Every promise shall come to pass in my life in the fullness of time.  I meditate on what You have promised me. I see myself doing what You said. I see myself living as what You revealed.  I see myself walking in Your best. I know it will come to pass! So I live every day in expectation of it, knowing that it can happen AT ANY TIME!  And I will never allow the disappointment of my past to keep my from the expectation of my future. I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen!

This is Today’s Word.  Apply it and prosper!