Expectation

One morning I was leaving my back porch prayer time when I felt the Father say that He needed me to expect the things I’d been praying for to happen. It was so startling, and so clear that I sat back down abruptly. I don’t know how you hear the Father, but I hear Him most often through His Word. Rarer are the times He drops such a direct and undeniable message in my heart. With the ball squarely in my court, I prayed something like,

“Father, I expect this one to be able to forgive and move on, for that one’s mind to be totally healed of earlier drug abuse, for that one to find his fulfillment in you…” (Names withheld for obvious reasons.)
Because I’ve learned that these impressions mean He wants to teach me something, I practically ran to my Bible to explore the concept of expectation. I’m not through. I hope I never get through, but I’m eager to share some of what I’ve been learning.
A quick search of my Greek dictionary revealed that the New Testament word hope also means “expectation”. Interesting. Is that the kind of hope Father wants to birth in us, I wondered, a weightier hope, all grown up into full-out expectation? Maybe our idea of hope is too casual. We sure toss it around easily enough.

“I hope you’re well.”

“Hope you get that job.”

“I hope it doesn’t rain.”

“There’s no hope. She’ll never change.”

Charles L. Allen once said, “When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you’re slamming the door in the face of God.” I’m beginning to understand how tragic it is for believers not to live in hope, if we can’t offer this world hope, who can?

I once read a powerful story about a man who lived long ago. He was told he had a disease that would soon lock him in his own mind like a prison. Before he lost his ability to reason, the man repeatedly asked the doctors for a glimmer of hope. Was there no medicine, nothing that could prevent him losing his mind? Over and over, they told him there was no hope. He spent his last days wandering around his room in a mental ward repeating two words. And what do you suppose they were? Indeed. “No hope” was the last thing he could say.

I’m learning that God not only wants us to hope, to have expectations of Him, but if we are to please Him, He requires it! According to Hebrews 11:5, our Faith is incomplete without it. “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” (NAS) To believe God is—that’s faith. To believe He will, we won’t do that without hope. Being an incurable storyteller, perhaps another story will help me to explain what I’m seeing.

My best friend Rhonda doesn’t mince words. She recently broke things down for her grown children. They were gathered around the table enjoying a nice holiday meal when she announced that while she didn’t mind babysitting their dogs occasionally, she was ready for two-legged grandchildren.
“By this time next year,” Rhonda said. “I want to be either holding a grandchild or have one on the way.” We’re all glad she gave her youngest a waiver, (she is still in high school, after all), and we’re thankful she clarified the goal for the other two by letting them know she wanted them to marry first. The girl may be desperate, but she’s maintaining her standards. As of this writing, there’s been little progress for my buddy on the grandchildren front, but she hasn’t given up hope.

My sister, Rhonda, on the other hand, isn’t just hoping for a grandchild. Her hands are flat out itching because her firstborn and his wife are expecting his firstborn any day now. My sissy has bought baby clothes, adjusted her schedule, and made plans for the big day! In other words, what she believes about the future can be seen in what she’s doing today.

Friend Rhonda has human hope. Sister Rhonda has an expectation that’s reminiscent of biblical hope. The kind of hope Father wants to fill believers with isn’t an elusive, one day if we’re lucky, kind of feeling. It’s a confident expectation of what He will do based on what He has already done, a hope that affects the way we live today because of what we believe about tomorrow. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13 (ESV)

Shellie Rushing Tomlinson, known as the Belle of All Things Southern is a radio host, columnist, author, speaker and founder of the All Things Southern online community, www.allthingssouthern.com. She once dreamed of writing great important things that changed the world, only once she started writing, the world grinned and christened her a humorist. Shellie saw this as a problem at first, until she discovered that the laughter softens hearts, builds relationships, and invites her into people’s hurting hearts where she can share her own, which is exactly where she wanted to be all along. Look for Shellie’s latest book, Sue Ellen’s Girl Ain’t Fat, She Just Weighs Heavy, wherever fine books are sold.