Expect God To Do It

This has been an exciting year! We have seen the hand of the LORD at work in our lives, experiencing His love, peace and blessings. God has taken the good, bad and ugly, and put it all in the mix to work out for the good. Now, a new year is on the horizon. What will come of this year? What new journey will be embarked upon? What kind of growth will be experienced this year?

The new year always presents itself with these questions and many others, building hope that the new year will be better than the last. This is a good thing because God wants His children to have hope. The Bible declares in Romans 5:5, "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." That's the New King James Translation. The first part of that verse in the King James Version says, "And hope maketh not ashamed..."

Both translations use the word "hope." This is powerful because a simple definition of hope is to have a confident favorable expectation. God wants all of His children, every blood washed Christian to have a confident favorable expectation that He will do what He has said He will do in His Word. This is God's hope! Not hope as the world supposes, feeling that what they are hoping for may, or may not come to pass. God charges us to put our hope in Him, for the one who does will not be put to shame.

Now that your hope sensors are tingling, expect God to do what He has said. With that, keep in mind that God's hope has a dual ingredient--His promise, and His performance. Therefore, with His hope in your heart, it is important to know what God has said in His Word concerning you and your circumstance. Then, you must, I repeat must, believe that God will do what He said He will do according to what He has written in His Word. Expect Him to do it! Don't look for explanations. Live with a confident, favorable expectation that God will do what He has said He will do.

Abraham is such a powerful depiction of this. Look at how Romans 4:17 reads in the NLT. It says, "This is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, "I have made you the father of many nations." This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing." Did you get that? Abraham believed in the God, the same God that we serve, who brings dead things to life and creates new things out of nothing.

Romans 4:18 further speaks of Abrahams hope. I like how the NLT translates this verse also. It says, "Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping--believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, "That's how many descendants you will have!"" Abraham kept hoping, believing that God would perform His promise.

As you go into this new year, I encourage you to expect God to do what He has said He will do just like Abraham did. Hope against hope, expect God! This year will be gone in a few hours. The new year awaits and God is expecting you to take Him at His Word and have a confident, favorable expectation that He will do what He has said. For the God we serve is truthful to His Word and faithful to perform it.

With that I close. Happy New Year and Expect God To Do It!

Leaning on Jesus, 


Dr. Sheila

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  2. Thank you for such encouragement as we count down 2013! What a year it has been! Going into the new year standing on His word like never before, with a great expectation for God to do what He says He will do!

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