Overview
Joanne Baxter examines “Expectations” through Nahum 1, Psalm 62, Psalm 118, Proverbs 3, showing how lord, trust, expect shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Transcript
Understanding Expectations
God bless you. Today I’d like to teach some things about expectations, and I’m going to start in Nahum chapter 1 verse 7 from the Amplified Bible. It reads, The Lord is good, a strength and stronghold in the day of trouble.
He knows, recognizes, has knowledge of, and understands those who take refuge and trust in him. He understands. He understands me.
He gets me. See, God knows me, and learning to know God helps us see what we can expect. So, expectations.
What do I expect? I get up in the morning. I expect a good day. I expect that the sun will come up in the morning.
When you hear the phrase, a woman is expecting, what does that mean? What is she expecting? She’s expecting to have a baby. Or, I expect on Friday my paycheck will be direct deposited into my bank. Why? Because past experience every other week on Friday my paycheck gets deposited.
The employee handbook says so. These are things that I expect. Let’s see what the word talks about as far as expectations.
The Biblical Foundation
If you look at Psalm 62 verse 5, it says, My soul, wait thou only upon God, for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense.
I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God.
Trust in him in all times, the good and the bad. We trust in him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before him.
God is a refuge for us. Say, law. My soul, wait thou only upon God.
Our expectation is from him. I expect God to do what he says. I expect God to help me.
My expectation is from God because God is faithful. He is true. He is good.
He never fails me. He is an almighty and all powerful God. Psalm 118 verse 5 reads, I called upon the Lord in my distress.
Examples and Spiritual Lessons
The Lord answered me and set me in a large place. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear what man, what can man do unto me? The Lord taketh my part with them that help me.
Therefore shall I see my desire upon them that hate me. Verse 8, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
We don’t trust in man. Our expectation is not in man, but our trust and expectation is in God because man can and will let us down. They’re human.
That’s why we trust and we wait on the Lord. Like it says in Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 reads, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths.
We trust in the Lord. We don’t lean to our own understanding. We don’t think, well, I can just handle all this.
I don’t need to ask God. Well, why not? He knows everything. Why wouldn’t we ask him? And in all our ways, acknowledge him and he’ll make our path straight.
Faith in Action
He’ll make them level smooth. He’ll show us the best way to go. What does it mean to acknowledge him in all our ways? The word acknowledge means to recognize, to lean on, to ask him, to include him throughout our day.
So I get up in the morning and I pray, it’s going to be a great day. Let’s go with you, God, and drive into work. And I thank God for his protection on my life and what I’m going to handle that day.
And I’ll get to work and I’ll be sitting at my desk and perhaps I’ll have a challenge and something maybe that’s frustrating me. And then I stop and I go, wait a minute, I can ask God, I can include him. And when I stop and you’re peaceful and ask him, the answer is there.
It’s very clear. The path is clear. We include him, we acknowledge him, and he wants to be included in our day.
We trust him because God goes before us. He knows the end from the beginning. God’s got our back.
It’s wonderful. Another way that this word expectation is translated is in Job. This is really cool.
Walking in Love and Confidence
Job chapter 6 verse 8 reads, oh that I might have my request and that God would grant me the thing that I longed for. That’s that word expectation or expect. The thing that I longed for.
The thing that I hoped for. Like I expect God to send Jesus Christ back one day. Of course, I expect it.
My expectation is in God. That’s my hope. Another definition of the word expect is it likely to happen.
And we anticipate, we await, we look for. Look at Psalm 37. Psalm 37 verse 3, Trust in the Lord and do good.
So shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord.
Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. We delight ourselves in God. Verse four, but we delight ourselves in the Lord and he’ll give us the desires of our heart.
We delight in God. That means we think about, we dwell on, we saturate our mind with the things of God and the word of God. And as we do that, then of course our desires are going to be godly because he’s the one that put him on our heart to begin with.
Applying the Teaching in Daily Life
So he’s already got it set up to make it happen for us. Our expectation is in him. We expect him to do that.
We will see that we will have the desires of our heart as we delight in him because God is the one that puts them there to begin with. It makes perfect sense. Jeremiah 29 verse 11 reads, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
To give us an expected end. Another translation renders it to give us a future and a hope. That’s our expectation.
We have a bright future and a hope. It’s like it says in first Timothy, for a having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. We have the promise of life that now is the things that God will do for us in our lives that we can enjoy today.
And the great promise of that which is to come, our hope. So have your expectation in God alone and you won’t be disappointed like it says in Romans 10 11 that those who believe will not be disappointed in our expectation. We will have those things that we’ve longed for.
We have a future and a hope because our expectation is in God.
Key Takeaways
- My expectation is from God because God is faithful.
- Our expectation is not in man, but our trust and expectation is in God because man can and will let us down.
- Like it says in Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 reads, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
- We have a future and a hope because our expectation is in God.
- Let’s see what the word talks about as far as expectations.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main message of “Expectations”?
Joanne Baxter examines “Expectations” through Nahum 1, Psalm 62, Psalm 118, Proverbs 3, showing how lord, trust, expect shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Which scriptures are central to this teaching?
The teaching draws especially from Nahum 1, Psalm 62, Psalm 118, Proverbs 3, Job 6.
How can believers apply this teaching?
Like it says in Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 reads, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Scripture References
Nahum 1; Psalm 62; Psalm 118; Proverbs 3; Job 6; Psalm 37
This text was prepared from the teaching audio or source document. Please verify scripture references against your own Bible.
