Game On!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the practical advantages of living a life of faith.  Living your daily life in such a way that the expectation of God’s Word working in your life is an active participant in the way you get up in the morning, navigate through your day and go to bed at night.

I found myself praying over the kitchen sink this morning for God’s vision for the new week ahead.  Having just come through an intense eight-year period of being completely focused on God working in my wife’s body, I now find myself needing a purpose, a plan… a daily vision to guide me through the weeks and months ahead.  I need to get back into the place where my expectation of God’s best working in my life is firing on all eight cylinders!

The Weymouth New Testament tells us “…that hope never disappoints, because God's love for us floods our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)  When I heard the guest minister share this verse yesterday at church something inside of me jumped as I wondered if that word “hope” was actually the Greek word “elpis” which means “to anticipate, usually with pleasure” or “expectation.”  And sure enough, when I checked it out this morning in one of my Greek dictionaries, I was right!  So that verse might better be translated as “…Our expectations never disappoint…”

My wonderful wife moved on to glory one month ago yesterday and everyday since, I have heard that familiar voice of the Lord speaking inside of me telling me to continue building my faith, to not stop or even lessen the amount of the faith building Word that I absorb and then disseminate each day.  I’ve seen what a lack of faith and the absence of expectation that comes with it (See: Hebrews 11:1) can do to a believer… and after what I’ve just gone through, I don’t want any part of that in my life!  How about you?

When you get a few moments, take the time to read through Hebrews chapter eleven, the so-called roll call of faith chapter.  And as you’ll notice, faith does a lot of things for us!  According to my favorite God’s Word © translation, Faith:

·       Assures

·       Convinces

·       Leads

·       Enables

·       Pleases God

·       Waits on God

·       Produces Miracles

·       Causes us to make right decisions

·       Conquers

·       Receives

·       May force us to go through some difficult times

·       But… Gives us God’s plans

As I build my faith through the study of God’s Word (See; Romans 10:17) my expectation soars and I joyfully look for and expect everyone of those twelve by-products of my faith in Him and His Word to work – on a regular basis – in my life!

So even though I may not YET have a clear picture of God’s next steps for me, I’m definitely not gonna slack when it comes to my daily intake of God’s Word.

With a tear in my eye, I retired our old and very worn-out healing scriptures confession sheet that we used multiple times a day for the last eight years.  As I gently placed it in Piper’s old bed stand, I suddenly felt a happy jolt as the idea popped up in my head to replace that well-used, purpose driven confession sheet with a new one just for me in this new chapter of my life!

And so, my new “I Can Do All Things Through Christ” confession sheet was born and it is already up to four pages and growing.  It is filled with every uplifting and encouraging verse I could think of… and then some… from both the Old and New Testaments!  I am currently editing the verses to personalize them so when I speak it out it is from the first person and truly from my heart!

Like I said… I’ve learned too much and gone through enough to know in the journey of Piper’s health that I am not about to do anything less but instead… My plan is to up my game!  I like living life full of the EXPECTATION of God’s best in my daily life! 

How about you?

Have a great new week ahead, and as you do, confess with me… “I am doing everything I can to keep my expectation of God’s best alive and active in my life!”