It is only fair that I ask myself, What is my expectation from God? The only satisfying answer is: That He be true to His Word. For if God has magnified “above all things [His] name and [His] word” (Psalm 138:2, NIV), then I have a right to depend upon that Word, and to expect He will do as He said. The Bible is clear in reminding me that not one word that the Lord utters will fail to come to pass (Joshua 23:14). Where God has clearly spoken, the answer will be clearly given.
But what about the times when God does not speak clearly? There is a difference between going according to principle and going according to an explicit word from the Lord. So many times in our lives there is no explicit word from God. What then? I find great help from the three Hebrew children who faced the furnace for refusing to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s image. Their answer to the king was, “God … is able to save us from the fire” (Daniel 3:17, Berkeley). That was their expectation, but they went beyond that to the personal equation—God Himself. They said, “But if not … we will [still] not serve [your] gods, nor worship the golden image” (v. 18). Lacking an explicit word from God, the Hebrews could only appeal to the nature, or character, of God and expect that He could never be other than what He was—holy, just, loving, merciful. They agreed with the psalmist, “My soul, look in stillness to God, for my expectation is from Him” (Psalm 62:5, Berkeley).
God does not always give me a particular message for every circumstance of my life, but He has given me Himself. That is the bottom line, the very bedrock of my relationship to Him. The man who works his way down to that solid foundation cannot be shattered by the storms of life.
“For the needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever” (Psalm 9:18).
Daily with the King 