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Day 5: Expecting The New

Bible Reading:  Romans 4:16-25, Habakkuk 2:1-3

There are times I get home quite late but I can be certain I will meet my young kids awake, running out of the door to welcome me home. 

It largely depends on what I told them before I left. Sometimes in a situation of trying to manage the emotions of my going out, I might have taken the easy rout and told them something like ‘guess what, daddy is going to get you a surprise when he’s coming!’ Then my four year old daughter’s face would brighten up like the PHCN power house ‘what is the surprise?’ I would usually have to hold back from saying something silly like ‘I myself don’t know, I’m just saying this to let you allow me leave’. I would instead say something like ‘you have to be awake when I come’ 

Quite a number of times, as I drive back in and see them running out, that’s the next time I actually think about the fact that I ever even mentioned getting a surprise, not to talk of getting it. They run to my door, open it and as they hug me, shout out ‘where’s the surprise?’ usually even before saying ‘welcome’. Don’t judge me, but I must confess that on one or two occasions, I simply took that opportunity to switch to my ‘African father’ mode and lecture them on how the welcome must always come first before any demand if they’re going to be responsible children in life, and that people are more important than things, and Christians must not be materialistic, and that as a disciplinary measure, I was being forced to delay the surprise till the next day and so won’t even bring it out of the car. 

My big thought today though is about what kind of child of God I am.  Do I still live with that spark and brightness at the sound of His promise? 

You see, God gives us precious promises so that we can live in the power of them, and not merely as victims of what’s around us.  God gives us promises in His word so that we don’t become prey to the pressures of the world.

People without expectation will make poor choices. They will sell out under the weight of pressure. They will tire out. They will live without hope. 

How is your heart responding to Gods promise of doing something new in this season?

A christian is not a passive let’s-see-how-it-goes person. Far from it. A christian lives on a front foot of hope: ‘My daddy made me a promise!’ To be passive around a promise is to say we doubt the credibility of the Promiser. 

To be a christian means that Gods promise must be propelling expectation in us. We must be living with a huge and heightened sense of hope, with a vibe and with a passionate expectation that is attached to the certainty of the promise.

Today, my encouragement is that we rediscover and respark our expectation! We must rediscover our alert expectancy! 

In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! Romans 5:5 MSG

I think the big challenge we deal with in living this way is that we have all been wounded. People have failed on their promises, we have let ourselves down so often, systems and institutions have been unreliable, time delays have set in, and so on, such that we start to view God’s promises within that same space. God’s promise feels like another promise that may or may not come true. 

This was the big line Abraham needed to cross in our reading today. Did you notice that there were things Abraham did not consider, and there was a focus Abraham solidified so that he could be full of expectation against all odds. 

And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He (God) had promised He was also able to perform Romans 4:19-21 NKJV

Christians must learn to do the separations! God is not your earthy dad that ‘changed it’ for you when you asked him to keep his promise- God is God! We can truly trust Him absolutely and allow that trust to birth the brightness of expectation in us.

Are you fully convinced that God is able to perform His promise?

Does your vibe and sense of expectation about life and the month ahead look more like the promise of the word or the pressures of the world? 

Forget about what’s happened;
don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.
 It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?
There it is! I’m making a road through the desert,
rivers in the badlands.
Isaiah 43:18-19 MSG

Lean in Moment

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6 Comments

  • Olawale Aluko
    Posted March 5, 2021 at 7:23 am

    With an alert expectancy, I see the new things bursting out in Jesus name

  • Tosin Farai
    Posted March 5, 2021 at 7:35 am

    I’ve been fidgeting lately cause of some delays. But this has really encouraged me. God will keep his promise, he will not tarry. Thank you sir!

  • Tai
    Posted March 5, 2021 at 7:41 am

    I lift up my eyes in earnest expectancy of all God will do! My heart is full of hope and of expectation!

  • David
    Posted March 5, 2021 at 7:46 am

    Thank God! He is no earthly father.
    I am absolutely convinced and persuaded He is able and willing to perform his promise!

    Thank you for this energy infusing reminder sir!

  • Favour Jonah
    Posted March 5, 2021 at 7:47 am

    Thank you Jesus for renewing my sense of expectation and I know you will stay true to your word.

  • Jide
    Posted March 5, 2021 at 9:54 am

    I am fully convinced that God is able to perform His promise!!

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