LIVING EXPECTANTLY
06th Sep 2017
Mark 15:43 in The Message says of Joseph of Arimathea, “He was one who lived expectantly, on the lookout for the kingdom of God.” That’s a challenge for us as to how we should live every day.
We can live expectantly because God is always wanting to draw His people forward into “a hope and a future”. The enemy wants to drag us back into our past, our failures, and all the negative experiences that have been our lot!
In Isaiah 50:4 says that “I can know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.” What kind of word can I expect as I wake each morning? It will be a message of hope, assurance, encouragement and healing. It will not drag me down it will build me up.
The psalmist declares, “In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.” (Psalm 5:3) David knew how to live expectantly, and it was not that life was always easy; he had more than his fair share of difficulties and set backs.
Life is constantly trying to wear us down, it may be difficulties that we are going though, or it may be the responsibility for others we love, who are also having trials and struggles. The way of faith is to live in the constant knowledge that “nothing is impossible with God” and that “God is for us and not against us.”
Romans 12:11-13 in The Message says, “Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.”
I will live expectantly today, because God word says, “...forget not all his benefits, He forgives all my sins, heals all my diseases, redeems my life from the pit and crowns me with love and compassion.”
by Charles Sibthorpe
