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Faith With Anticipation

Every Christian has their first episode of faith when they first believe the gospel and respond to the call of Jesus Christ. After responding to the gospel the Christian enters into a relationship with God where Jesus is Lord.  Sounds rather simple but there has to be a reason to believe the gospel.

Did your faith in the gospel rely on proof or was it based on a confidence in the person who died for your sins? The biblical concept of faith is to entrust your wellbeing into the hands of Christ as long as you live.  Throughout the bible we find the words that encourage you to confide and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. However faith in God and our Lord Jesus Christ just doesn’t happen overnight or at a snap of a finger. Faith is acquired by hearing the word of God and overtime matures into a deeper and more personal relationship with our Lord.

Our relationship with Jesus Christ will grow when we learn to worship God in spirit and truth on a regular basis. If we expect to please our Lord we must know and do what pleases God. According to God’s promises, it is both reasonable and feasible to place your wellbeing into the hands of Jesus Christ. The reason being, God has given his children several promises to ensure our wellbeing so we may escape the corruption of the world.

God’s promises extend beyond our moral condition to include our physical, mental and financial wellbeing. Every facet of our life is covered by one promise or another. However, your faith in God will be tested to know if your trust in God can be shaken. Understand this and take these words to heart, the testing of your faith develops perseverance in the Lord (James 1:3). Some prayers are answered immediately while others take years before the answer is seen. We should consider that the patriarchs were commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect (Hebrews 11:39-40).

Your faith is released by the words of your mouth and the bible says out of the abundance of your heart your mouth speaks (Luke 6:45).  Christians don’t always say things that help their situation but they can say things that can change our situation due to our relationship with God. What you say should be based on the promises God has made to his children. Even though our trust in God is not seen with our eyes or changed our situation it’s through prayer and being fully persuaded that God is faithful in honoring his word that is why we place our trust in God. 

We have two choices to describe our answer to prayer and two ways to look at your situation after you have prayed about it.   The first choice is to tell the world that we haven’t seen or received the answer because it hasn’t taken place.  The second choice is to receive God’s answer by faith and tell the world what you believe God is doing for us before it takes place.

 Those who claim they haven’t seen or received the answer believe that they would be lying to say they have received the answer to their prayer. For those who tell the world they believe God has answered their prayer, are expressing their confidence in God and expecting the answer at any moment?

Faith will always express confidence in God and that you are fully persuaded that God has power to do what he promised (Romans 4:21). Your confidence in the word of God tells us to believe what we say will happen (Mark 11:23) and it takes faith in God to believe what we asked for in prayer will be received (Mark 11:24).

Those who haven’t seen the answer yet, believe that they would be lying when nothing has changed. They are certain of what they see and speak only of what they have seen. While there is no intent to deceive anyone they have not given God the glory for answering their prayer.  It’s normal for Christians to ask God for relief but it’s not right to accuse God for being unfaithful when you haven’t received the answer as expected. Your beliefs sends mixed signals to the very person they relied on to answer their prayers. How can you say that you trust God when you express your doubt?

Those who follow Christ have a promise from him that he will do whatever you ask him to do. Within this promise Jesus has expressed the goal of this promise to bring glory to the Father.  Bringing glory to the father depends on how you react to the promises Jesus honors?

 Expressing your praise and appreciation to God for his compassion is what Jesus wants to bring to his father. When we look at God’s promises you can be sure of what you hope for and convinced of what you do not see based on God’s past record. He answered your prayers then and he will make every effort to answer your prayers now. You have established a foundation of faith to demonstrate your faith and give glory to God. When your confidence in God of being certain of what you do not see is established in your heart you will expect answered prayer and be able to praise God before Jesus fulfills your request. When you praise God before Jesus responds to your request you have the certain expectation that God will respond to your situation because he loves you. Then Jesus will have the glory to take to his father.

 

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