In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. Psalm 5:3
After we pray, we wait in expectation. That means we don’t fret or wait fearfully. We wait, expecting God to engage in our world while faith fills our soul with expectation. However, be careful with flippant prayers that are shot off randomly with no recognition of royalty in the room. Christ’s kingship is marginalized when men or women pray aimlessly, without expectations. Prayer becomes just another commodity when its compelling nature ceases to exist, so be sure to pray in the Spirit (Ephesians 6:18).
Do not grow weary of waking up each day in prayer. You shouldn’t neglect the cleansing of your soul anymore than you would the bathing of your body. It is when you are the freshest and fatigue is the weakest that you engage best in prayer. One hour of prayer in the morning is worth two hours at night because your mind has yet to be soiled with the complexities of the day.
In other words, people have not yet become a problem. When you send up your prayers at sunrise, you can expect peace of mind at sunset, giving you piece of mind in between. Morning prayers sow seeds of selflessness that bear fruit during the day in patience, peace, and productivity.
Indeed, you wait, expecting God to answer in His timing and in His way but your waiting is not without doing. As you pray and wait for the Lord to send out workers into His ripe harvest (Matthew 9:37-38), you venture into the world yourself and learn to love people. As you pray and wait to be healed from a dreaded disease or aggravating ailment, you go to a well-trained doctor to administer the latest medicines and treatments to help remedy your illness.
As you pray and wait for a job, you go out and enlist in projects or labor that exposes you to new opportunities which may provide for your family in the interim. As you pray and wait for a relationship to be repaired, you reach out and seek to love them along the way with encouraging words and acts of kindness. You do your part as you wait expectantly on God to do His part. Waiting involves listening to the Almighty and then acting.
Expectations of God are good. Just be sure to align your expectations with His, in prayer. Prayer without expectations would be cruel and unusual punishment. Yes, no expectations may mean no disappointments, but this is where prayer and faith fill in the gaps. Having no expectations may mean you have no hope, no motivation to move forward, and no opportunity to trust God with outrageous possibilities. But you can expect good things from God.
Therefore, do not confuse having no expectations of God with having no expectations of people. God is trustworthy 100% of the time. He can be trusted regardless, so expect this of Him. He loves to see His children wait expectantly on Him. This trusting posture invites Him to answer prayers you never dreamed possible. You trust Him exclusively as you wait expectantly. And oh, He knows how to exceed your expectations. Wait and see.
“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us…”(Ephesians 3:20).
Am I actively working as I am prayerfully waiting? What can I expect from God as I wait?
Related Readings: Psalm 38:15; Micah 7:7; Matthew 9:37-38; Ephesians 6:18
Source: Wisdom Hunters by Boyd Bailey
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