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.