Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. Mark 11:23-24
How big is your faith? Throughout scripture God calls for our faith, but God wants our hearts too. Hebrews 11:1 gives us a baseline definition of faith as the substance of things hoped for that the evidence has not been seen. A key component in our faith is hope. So, what is hope exactly? Hope is to trust in or look expectantly toward.
Let’s break that down a bit more. Hope looks expectantly toward something or someone to provide; provide an outcome, financially, spiritually, emotionally. This is contradictory to many lessons taught in this world. Many motivations speakers, even spiritual gurus will tell you expectations negatively impact our mentality. In business, people are told hope is not a strategy. These lessons preach that high expectations often lead to disappointment, bitterness, resentment or even financial ruin.
Here is the conundrum…How can God call for expectations when unfilled expectations lead to sin? On the surface this appears difficult, however, expectation of earthly people or things is not the same as expectations toward God. Humans, society, employers, even family are all bound to fall short of expectations as are we! Our expectations toward God must be grounded in his word and his character. Scripture tells us the only thing God cannot do is lie. Herein is the problem; my expectations are not big enough for God. My expectations cannot be founded in earthly things or motivated by control. If I try to control God and seek earthly desires, I will be disappointed. This disappointment is misdirected at God.
Too often we look at God when bad things happen and conversely forget to praise him when good things happen, even teeny tiny things. A simple example is a package delivery or luggage making it to your destination. When a package we really want gets lost or delayed, we easily say why God?! Or that is not fair, God hates me. Yet when things arrive on time and as scheduled how often do we say thank you God for making that happen? We lean into our false understanding that logistically things were supposed to make it. We make God nothing when God should be everything. That is the missing component to our hope and expectations: God is everything!
In finding that God is everything, we can look at hope differently. We actually should have expectations of God so long as it is rooted in the fact that God can be trusted to fulfill his promises, demonstrate his goodness, and provide necessary provision. This hope in God’s character as revealed in scripture leads to faith. Faith becomes our powerful tool to listen and follow Jesus. When we have faith based in a hope fueled by expectation that God is good and fulfills his promises, the mountains obey and throw themselves into the sea. How powerful? When we allow God to operate in his character we can expect miracles. When we face a mountain and feel doubt creep in, we need only turn around. There will be piles of rocks littering our path where mountains once stood.
God,
I pray my expectations of your goodness know no bounds. I pray that my hope in the promises you already made and fulfilled fuel my faith. Please let me live by this faith every day. Amen.
