True Faith Is Accompanied by Expectation

         By A. W. Tozer

         According to my earnest expectation and my hope. . .

         so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body,

         whether it be by life, or by death. -  -  Philippians 1:20

 

             Expectation and faith, though alike, are not identical.

         An instructed Christian will not confuse the two.

 

             True faith is never found alone; it is always accompanied

         by expectation. The man who believes the promises of God,

         expects to see them fulfilled.  Where there is no expectation,

         there is no faith.

 

 

             It is, however, quite possible for expectation to be present

         where no faith is. The mind is quite capable of mistaking

         strong desire for faith. Indeed faith, as commonly understood,

         is little more than desire compounded with cheerful optimism.

 

             Real faith is not the stuff dreams are made of; rather it is

         tough, practical and altogether realistic. Faith sees the invisible,

         but it does not see the nonexistent. Faith engages God, the one

         great Reality, who gave and gives existence to all things. God's

         promises conform to reality, and whoever trusts them enters a

         world not of fiction, but of fact!

 

 

             Expectation  has  always been present in the church  In the

         times of her greatest power. When she believed, she expected,

         and her Lord never disappointed her.  His blessings accorded

         with their expectations, "and blessed is  she  that  believed:

         for there shall be a performance of those things which

         were told her from the Lord."

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         Yours in Christ,

         Paul N. F.