Expectation in God

 So now wrap your heart tightly around the hope that lives within us, knowing that God always keeps his promises! 

 

-Hebrews 10:23, Passion Translation

 

I was taught that expecting God to give me things or do things for me was bad. We’re told to ask God for things but, in the same breath, not expect Him to give them to us. It was in the name of piety but how backward is that? Especially because it contradicts God’s Word.

Then on the flip side, now we tell people to "Name it and claim it" but that leads to disillusioned Christians disappointed that God hasn't granted their wishes. God isn't a genie. That contradicts God's Word too.

How many of us know the scripture, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you? (Matthew 7:7-8) If this is true, which it is, doesn’t that create expectancy? Doesn’t that mean I should expect to receive something? Of course! We should ask with expectancy but what we ask, seek and open are equally as important.

There is this disconnect between the Word of God and the pulpit because there is a crucial element missing here from pulpit teaching. We should expect God to fulfill His promises to us. Hebrews 10:23 says, God keeps His promises. I put His promises in bold because it is a subtle but incredibly important distinction and an incredibly important thing for us to understand.

He doesn’t fulfill our wants and we should not expect God to just give us things. Name it and claim it is a nice slogan, but it is not biblical. That would mean that you say I want $1M and claim it in the Name of Jesus. But is that God’s desire for your life? What if He wanted to give you more? Or better still wanted to give you something you couldn’t even fathom like influence, peace, contentment, happiness, joy unspeakable? Intangibles that mean more than the physical.

We also shouldn't come to God with weak prayers either. We serve an Almighty God who create this whole galaxy with words! He can do the glorious impossible. When you come and make a request you better come with expectancy that He will do it, otherwise what are you praying for?

What we should be taught really is to ask God to make His plan’s our plans, to make His desires our desires, to make his dreams for our lives our dreams. When we do that, we can then then ask God with expectancy that those plans, desires and dreams are brought to fruition in our lives.

A person may have many ideas concerning God’s plan for his life, but only the designs of God’s purpose will succeed in the end.  

 

-Proverbs 19:21, Passion Translation

 

When we ask God to complete the work that he has started in us, the purpose He has called us to, we should expect that He will do it because the scripture says that God’s purpose will succeed in the end and He who began a good work in you (His good work) He will be faithful to complete it in you (Phillipians 1:6). His Word is true, and as such expect that He will do what He said.

However, when you ask God for a Maybach you should have no expectation that He will grant that request. What happens if getting the Maybach doesn’t happen? Does that mean God isn’t good? That He isn’t God? Absolutely not. God doesn’t have to provide anything that is not from Him. His plan will always prevail. He doesn’t deal in earthly things but kingdom things. You didn’t pray a prayer that was guaranteed.

That doesn’t mean He doesn’t provide you with earthly things. When God went to Solomon and told Solomon he could ask for anything and it would be granted, Solomon asked for wisdom (2 Chronicles 1:7-12). Solomon was on a kingdom level of thinking. And the way He asked for it, “for who on his own is capable of leading these, your glorious people? (MSG)”. Do we come before God understanding that we are not capable of fulfilling the purpose for our lives on our own? Do we even comprehend that what God has set us out to do, God is the one who gave you authority over it? (That’s another post for another day.) Solomon recognized that and asked God to help him complete his assignment. God is committed to seeing his work completed, so with that request God gave Solomon the wisdom he asked for and more riches than he could have even thought to ask for, more than any King before him or after him. Jeff Besos and Elon Musk had nothing on Solomon.

God determines what’s good. We may think something is good, but our good never even touches God’s good. God’s plans are bigger, better more spectacular than ANYTHING I could ever think or imagine for myself. Solomon asked for wisdom and God said here’s all the rest that you didn’t even ask for.

So, I pray, (and I invite you to do so also) God, make your plans my plans, your ways my ways, and fulfill it in me. God is committed to seeing his work completed in me and you. All we have to do is obey.

When you are praying that God’s will be done in your life you can NEVER be disappointed, only amazed that God thought so much of you that He sought to do great work, not good but great work, in and through your life. 

The Unlikely Missionary

Damaris