Expectation is a powerful force in our lives. Whether we know it or not, we are all living on some level of expectation. Many are expecting negative things, sickness, loss, calamity and hardships. Others are expecting favor and blessings. Where do our expectations come from?
Expectation means “intense anticipation.” It can be either the intense anticipation of good, or the intense anticipation of bad things. What we expect we attract. A negative outlook on life creates an atmosphere for loss. A positive outlook creates the environment for increase. This is true for believers and unbelievers.
Expectation is impossible until someone sows a seed!
When you were a child you parents may have sown seeds of expectation about holidays, vacations or Christmas. Those word seeds created imaginations and desire. Expectation springs from seeds. The nature of the seeds will determine the kind of expectation that is created.
Seeds are being sown into us all of the time. The ones we allow into our hearts are the ones that will create our expectations. Seeds of fear, anxiety, worry, sickness, poverty or loss, if allowed to stay in the soil of our hearts, will produce after their nature and shape our expectations for the future.
This is important because from our expectations come faith or unbelief. Faith is the substance of things hoped for (Heb. 11:1). Hope is intense, positive expectation birthed from the seeds of God’s promises. It is impossible to have faith if our hearts are full of the negative seeds of the world. We may say we believe God, but our heart is telling a different story. The invisible, negative expectation that fills our environment snuffs out faith. Faith can only live in the atmosphere of the intense anticipation of God’s goodness.
When we allow God’s Word to plant the seeds of abundance into our hearts, and we limit negative seed sowers in our lives, our expectation level will rise, and faith will spring forth.
Expectation is impossible until someone sows a seed. Who is sowing into your life? Those seeds are shaping your future. If your heart is filled with the seeds of the world, your faith will never have a chance.
The writer is a Dean of Instructors at Charis Bible College in Colorado. He reserves all rights to this publication.
