Hoping... Expecting

I have three children.  My oldest son, Donavon, is 9 and my twins, Nathan and Maya, are 4.  I remember both pregnancies, as all mothers do, and started thinking about them a bit more today as their birthdays are approaching in July (yes, all of them).  I remember every struggle and stress such as having gestational diabetes with my first pregnancy, and high blood pressure and being big as a house with my second.  Just as much as the negative, I remember every happiness and joy such as the ultrasounds, the kicks and hiccups and the endless food!!!  I also remember the hope of what was to come.  I was holding a miracle within me!

As I thought about my children, God began to speak to me about the hope he has for us.  You see, when a woman becomes pregnant, we often say she is “expecting”.  We don’t say she is “wishing”.  As God pressed this word ‘hope’ into my heart today, I began to ask the basic questions such as “what does this word truly mean?”

The Encarta Dictionary defines ‘Hope’ as A) A confident desire: a feeling that something desirable is likely to happen; and B) To Expect or have an expectation. 

I looked through the Bible about Hope and did not fined a single thing about hoping something would happen.  In fact, everything I found about hope was about God and His hope!  The first thing about hope… You cannot have hope without Jesus!  It is impossible to have hope without Him!  1 Peter 1:21 says “…¹who through Him [Jesus] believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” (emphasis added by author)  In knowing that hope is an expectation, we are expecting of God! 

I thought about my growing stomach and remembered that even though I couldn’t see my babies yet, I was sure they were about to come!  There are people who may not believe the promises you carry from God, but you, the expectant one, KNOWS!  Why?  Because they are growing inside of you!  Your passion, your potential, your promises, are growing inside of you!  You can feel them getting stronger the more you nurture them and you can even see them moving as you follow God’s directions.  However, you can’t deliver them early.  They have to come at the right time!

Next, hope (expectation) inspires faith.  When my doctor told us we were going to have a baby, that was our expectation.  So, in faith, we began to prepare for the baby(ies) we were hoping to deliver in less than nine months.  In faith, we got car seats, clothes, diapers, bassinettes, blankets, etc.  We didn’t have the babies in our arms or even see them yet.  But you don’t prepare for something that you don’t expect.

If you have a promise from God, are you preparing your hearts for it to come to pass?  Are you preparing your lives to walk into the promises God has given you?  Are you hoping with expectation, or dreamily wishing with no expectation whatsoever?

Before you begin this new week, I challenge you to look at your lives.  Are you expecting God’s promises or are you standing sterile, wishing something would happen? 

Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  Faith is the tangible part of the expectation.  It takes the internal expectation and makes an external preparation!  Even though you can’t see it yet, you are “banking” on it.

Consider this your personal check from God.  You don’t have the cash yet but when someone hands you a check, you don’t throw it away and say, well that’s not money!  NO!  You go to the bank and cash it in!  It is expected money!  Faith is your check to Hope.  It is the evidence of the unseen promise.

My prayer is that you find the hope that only Jesus can give and allow it to cultivate faith in you!  You don’t have to live life without an expectation or hope!  There is love… There is hope!

God bless you!