00:00:00 Welcome to tonight's Saturday night special, where I talk a little bit about faith and expectations here on the inspired stewardship podcast. I'm R. J. Jackson, the courage giver. I encourage you to have the courage you need to live your calling, and one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this. The inspired stewardship podcast with my friends got major. If you begin to put your expectations into that frame, not I expect everything to work out exactly the way I want it to work out.
00:00:48 But then I have expectations that things will indeed work out in a way that is good, even if that is not the way that I want. Welcome and thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship. Podcasts. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in. The inspired Searchie podcast will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the work in tonight's Saturday Night special.
00:01:35 I talk with you about why having expectations does not mean you don't have faith. Why faith in expectation are both important concepts for your success and howto have faithful expectations without actually forcing things.
00:01:52 No one area that a lot of folks need some help with is around the area of productivity. Getting not just Maur things done,
00:02:02 but actually getting the right things done can be really, really tough. I've got a course called Productivity for your passion that's designed to help you do this.
00:02:15 And then they hold you accountable and walk with you so that you can tailor productivity not just to be getting more done but actually getting the right things done.
00:02:26 What's more, we take the approach of looking at your personality and how you actually look at things in the world and Taylor the productivity system to your personality.
00:02:37 Because the truth is, a lot of the systems that are out there are written really well for somebody with a particular personality type.
00:02:44 But if you have a different approach to things, they just don't work. But there's tools and techniques and approaches that you can take that will work for anyone,
00:02:54 and we help you do that and productivity for your passion. Check it out over an inspired stewardship dot com slash launch.
00:03:04 When you think about faith and expectation, at first glance, they can often seem to be opposites are contradictory things.
00:03:13 I mean, if faith is defined as the complete confidence, our trust in something or something, or someone something that's bigger than us,
00:03:25 and it's this complete and total trust. While expectation is usually defined as a strong belief that something will happen or something will come to be a certain way,
00:03:39 especially in the future. And at first glance, these two concepts seem to be contradictory. You can't have faith at the same time that you have expectations about the future.
00:03:52 In fact, if you think about it today, we kind of live in a world of expectation that is based on instant gratification where constantly on our phones were constantly tuning into the next thing.
00:04:09 We're always waiting for something to come immediately. We tend to not slow down. We want everything to come our way right away.
00:04:21 And yet many of the things that were asked to do what it comes to faith require a certain degree of patients.
00:04:29 A certain degree of waiting for things to come. In fact, patients is referenced in the Bible many,
00:04:37 many times is one of those things that we are asked to do. So at first glance, it sounds like what we're saying is,
00:04:46 you know, faith is good and expectation is bad, but I would argue that that's not necessarily true.
00:04:55 You know, how can you learn to have faith in the unseen things if you are expecting everything to happen within the time that you want within the way that you want?
00:05:07 If you're expecting everything to come your way instantly whenever you feel like it's time for you to come, then that seems like that would push away faith.
00:05:19 And there is truth to that. If your expectations are based solely on what you want, then that can be a hinderance to developing and having a sense of faith.
00:05:34 Because faith at its core faith is about recognizing the fact that you don't control everything that you can't make everything happen the way that it's not all dependent upon you,
00:05:48 that in fact you have to trust in God and other power because you're not all powerful. That kind of faithful walk is different than the expectation of I expect God to do what I want.
00:06:08 I expect God toe, do everything and make everything fall the right way so that my life is easy.
00:06:17 In fact, as Christians, we are not promised unease e life. So does that mean then that by definition,
00:06:25 if you have expectations that you don't have faith? And I would argue that that's not true because they actually go together in a way.
00:06:36 See, the thing that connects the two, the thing that makes our expectations and our faith work together is how we put things into action because see,
00:06:47 faith can sometimes cause us to stall out. Faith can cause is to sit back and go well, God's got this.
00:06:55 God's going to take care of everything, so I don't need to do anything. I don't need to make an effort.
00:07:01 I don't need to go out and communicate. I don't need to go out and work. I don't need to go out and ask for help.
00:07:07 I don't need to make an effort because you God will fix it. But I've talked about it before.
00:07:13 That passive faith is not going to be what God is asking for us to do. Instead, we have an expectation that by going into action in the direction that God is calling us to go,
00:07:29 if we goto where God is and show up there and work in partnership with God, we don't try to put our own will onto it.
00:07:39 But rather we respond to the will of God that in doing this by doing this, we have faith that God will deliver on the promises in some way,
00:07:51 shape or form. That yes, may be exactly what we expect and what what won't come to fruition.
00:07:57 But something good will come from this. We expect that when we turn and seek out God, God,
00:08:05 as their God shows up, we can have expectation that God is powerful and God can do the things that we aren't big enough to do.
00:08:19 And out of that, it actually can cause us to take on things and do things beyond what we believe our own abilities are.
00:08:28 It can actually drive us out of our comfort zone through this combination of faith and expectation, weaken doom,
00:08:36 or rather than less, we can be driven in tow. Bigger action, not smaller action because we stop tryingto put,
00:08:45 but just our own limits on action, and we recognize that God can push us beyond that. And if you begin to put your expectations into that frame,
00:08:57 not I expect everything to work out exactly the way I want it to work out. But then I have expectation that things will indeed workout in a way that is good,
00:09:08 even if that is not the way that I want. And when you begin to put your expectation on God and your faith in God,
00:09:17 then out of that you can believe that you can do something bigger than you can do because it's no longer about you.
00:09:27 It becomes about the things that are bigger than you. And by doing that, you can have a sense of faithful expectation that drives you into action without trying to force your own will and your own desire onto the world.
00:09:45 Thanks for listening. Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship Podcast. As a subscriber and listener,
00:09:58 we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way toe live your calling.
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00:10:37 your talent and your treasures develop your influence and impact world.