Encouragement

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Anticipation

This week I have had an expectation; and anticipation that something good was going to happen. It’s been like a ‘fire shut up in my bones,’ I have felt like dancing. I described it to some as if it was almost tangible. I expected at any minute to get a phone call or a knock at the door with word that a miracle had just taken place. I’ve spent the week praising the Lord and claiming the victory in so many areas of my life.

At one point, earlier in the week when no word of miracles came, the enemy began to taunt me with words of doubt; ‘see you got all excited over nothing.” “What were you expecting? Just as always, you get excited and nothing happens.”

So what happened you ask? As far as my physical eyes can see, nothing! But here is what I learned.

So often we expect the worse. We dread getting the mail. We dread answering the phone calls. We dread going to work. We dread facing the children. We dread going to church. We dread everything about life. And I’m talking about Christians. It seems that we have grown accustomed to living in a realm of dread rather than a realm of expectation or anticipation.

Turn on the news and pick up the paper and if you are not careful you’ll begin thinking maybe you should build a bomb shelter for your family. The media knows that crime and disaster sells. All you have to do is take a look around you and you will see destruction and death, nothing good seems to be happening, instead it seems to worsen. Let me remind you that this is scriptural.

In Mark chapter 13 Jesus lays it all out. Take a look at the following verses:
· 5And Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive you
· 6For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
· 7And when ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.
· 8For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.
· 12Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death.
· 21And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not:
· 22For false Christ’s and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.

So why are we shocked when we hear about war? Why are we surprised when we see wars within family boundaries? Why are so many Christians living in a state of depression? Why do we act as if God owes us something tangible? Why do we give up on those who appear to have turned their back on God? I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

It is time that we get back into the Word. I don’t mean pick a scripture a day to read before you head out the door. I mean turn off the news and put down the paper and dive into the Truth of the Word. We must get our eyes off of what we see and recognize that faith is, the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

This week I’ve realized that the level of anticipation that I have experienced is a direct result of spending time with God and in His Word. At one point, when the enemy began his attack by telling me ‘nothing had happened so it all must be a farce,’ I began to realize that something was happening. I began to feel a warrior spirit rising within me, and I let every imp from hell that had been sent to destroy me, know that just because I did not see a physical evidence of a miracle did not mean a miracle was not taking place!


Psalms 62:5 my soul wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him.


What are you anticipating today?

Where is your expectation?

Is it in what you can see or in what you cannot see?

Are you standing firm on the promises of God or have you long given up?

Are you clothed in the armour of the Lord prepared for battle or have you built a bomb shelter and hiding from the inevitable?

Folks, the bottom line is this? As I write this I have not received word that my daughter has been delivered from drug addiction, but my hope in the Lord, not what the statistics tell me. II Timothy 1: 12For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

If I stop praying and studying the Word, I start looking to the physical evidence and the next thing you know I’m feeling down and out. But when I recognize that God has not changed, but is the same today as He was yesterday, I then realize that every river that I face, although it may look rough or impassable, he will make a way through it, under it or over it! Isaiah 43: 2When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

Here is the bottom line. If we are spending time with the King and spending time in His Word, we will realize that He is our Hope! If we are putting our hope in the arm of the flesh then we are going to be disappointed every time. Man will ALWAYS fail us; God will NEVER fail! He can’t!

I challenge you today to spend time alone with God and renew that relationship that was once built on a foundation of trust and faith. Put down the newspaper and open up the Word and see what God has to say. Turn your eyes back to the cross and the work that was accomplished there. Stop looking at the physical condition of your lost loved ones and commit them to the Lord and stand firm on the promises of God. Recognize that Jesus is coming back! Will you be ready?

Mark 10:26-37 and then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven. Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near: So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

What are you anticipating today? Where is your expectation? Is your hope in the Lord? Are you confident that He will see you through every storm? Do you anticipate that Jesus is coming back?

I Thessalonians 4:14-18 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Today may be the day!

© July 29, 2005 Jounda LaMance

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