One of the most challenging things about expectation is waiting. We do not wait well.
Everyone has a story of not waiting well. Our expectations impact our attitudes while we wait. It is a privilege to expect God’s faithfulness as we wait. Believe His word; He is true and faithful.
God is so kind and caring as He reminds me to believe His word. I am privileged to be reminded every time I drive somewhere.
Often, I remember that God knows the state of my heart while following a slow driver. I realize my motivations when I speed up to get in front of a car instead of slowing down at a yield sign. I have an ongoing opportunity to apply the SABERS responses every time I drive.
Our minds, thoughts, and emotions either respond to God or react to circumstances. God faithfully provides His deliverance, strength, and sufficiency for the mental collision of “respond vs. react”.
We intentionally respond by waiting expectantly in God’s peace, hope, and righteousness. Our mental focus remains fixed on believing the truth of God’s Word. The physical circumstances merely provide the vehicle by which God completes His work.
Faith seeks God, acknowledges His sovereignty, believes His character and expects His faithfulness. God’s sufficiency is not contingent on whether or not we understand, feel, or see His faithfulness.
In the New Testament, Paul gives us an example of expecting God’s sufficiency.
Philippians 4:12-13
I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. 13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
We may think that because we have Jesus, we will not have any problems. But that is not truth from God’s word. While living in this world, we can expect difficulties, but Jesus has overcome the world (John 16:33) and has given us His joy made full (John 17:13).
James tells us that we will encounter challenges. He also tells us that these physical challenges produce eternal results.
James 1:2-4
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
God’s grace is always sufficient. He provides all we need to live dependent on His power flowing through us. As we respond to God, hope, joy, peace, and purpose override the physical circumstances. This is our place of satisfaction.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
As God continues the work He has begun in us (Phil. 1:6), we pray for contentment in weakness, insults, distress, persecutions, and difficulties. As we expect God’s faithfulness to replace our fears, we can believe that “when I am weak, then I am strong”.