{"id":12,"date":"2026-10-01T21:41:31","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T02:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/?p=12"},"modified":"2026-10-06T09:29:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:29:48","slug":"faith-is-revealed-in-expectation","status":"publish","type":"faithco_working_note","link":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/working-notes\/faith-is-revealed-in-expectation\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith Is Revealed in Expectation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"faithco-working-note-context\"><em>Editorial context: The source conversation for this Working Note is not present as a local transcript or in the current Source Conversations archive. The material below preserves the supplied line of inquiry as editorial\/contextual development; it does not present reconstructed dialogue as if it had been spoken.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"faithco-pull-quote\">Faith is revealed in expectation.<\/aside>\n<h2>An examining question<\/h2>\n<p>One way of examining what I actually believe is to ask: <em>What do I expect will happen?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The question reaches beneath the words we use about faith. I may say that I believe God is faithful. But what do I expect after I pray? Do I actually assume that God is faithful, or do I assume that His promises are difficult, rare, or unlikely to reach me? Expectation can disclose what has taken root more honestly than a stated belief.<\/p>\n<h2>Expectation and assumption<\/h2>\n<p>Expectation and assumption are closely related. The assumption is the inward conclusion from which I live; expectation is often how that conclusion appears when I look toward what is about to happen. The question is not only what I say about God, but what I quietly anticipate from Him.<\/p>\n<p>Fear of disappointment can make the heart protect itself. It can feel safer not to expect too much. A person may pray, but inwardly prepare for the prayer not to be answered. The result is a divided posture: the mouth agrees with the promise while the inner life expects another outcome.<\/p>\n<h2>Stepping out of the boat<\/h2>\n<p>Peter stepping out of the boat gives the question a physical shape. It is possible to step out while secretly expecting to drown. That is not the same thing as faith, even though the outward action may look courageous.<\/p>\n<p>Faith is not merely acting contrary to our feelings. It is not a performance in which I force myself to do the thing that fear says I cannot do while leaving my deepest expectation untouched. The deeper work is the coming into alignment of feelings, expectations, assumptions, and the Word of God.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"faithco-scripture\">The Word becomes flesh: agreement with what God has said becoming visible in a life.<\/aside>\n<p>That agreement is not an attempt to control God. God remains sovereign and can surprise us. The point is not that God must always do exactly what I expect. The point is that expectation reveals what I believe has actually taken root, and that we often receive and respond in alignment with our inner agreement.<\/p>\n<h2>Prayer, union, and communion<\/h2>\n<p>Prayer is not only a request sent toward God. It is also union and communion with the Father. In prayer, the question is not simply, &#8220;What result can I obtain?&#8221; but, &#8220;What am I agreeing with? What do I believe about the Father as I ask?&#8221;<\/p>\n<aside class=\"faithco-scripture\">Jesus teaches that we may ask the Father in His name and receive, so that joy may be full. &#8211; John 16:23-24<\/aside>\n<p>Answered prayer and expectation therefore belong together, though not as a formula that removes God&#8217;s freedom. Joy is not an argument for striving harder. It is fruit: something that grows from communion, agreement, and life received from the Father.<\/p>\n<h2>Seed \/ Root \/ Fruit<\/h2>\n<aside class=\"faithco-seed\">The question: What do I expect will happen? What do I assume after I pray?<\/aside>\n<p>The seed is the Word received. It is the beginning of an agreement that may still be small, contested, or difficult to name.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"faithco-root\">The root is what has actually taken hold beneath the visible confession: faith, fear, divided expectation, or a growing communion with the Father.<\/aside>\n<p>The root is not measured by the intensity of striving. It is revealed over time in the direction of the inner life. This is why faith cannot be reduced to saying the right words or performing the right action while expecting the opposite.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"faithco-fruit\">Fruit is the visible evidence of what has actually taken root.<\/aside>\n<p>Faith without fruit is dead &#8211; not because fruit earns God&#8217;s response, and not because works can manufacture faith, but because living faith becomes visible. Fruit is different from striving. Striving tries to produce an appearance from the outside; fruit grows from life within.<\/p>\n<h2>A question left open<\/h2>\n<p>What would change if expectation were treated as evidence &#8211; not infallible evidence, because God is sovereign and may surprise us, but meaningful evidence &#8211; of what I have actually come to believe?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps faith is revealed in expectation because expectation shows whether the Word has remained only an idea, or whether it has begun to become flesh in us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A workshop on what expectation reveals about faith, prayer, agreement with God&#8217;s Word, and the fruit of what has taken root.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"tags":[],"faithco_speaker":[],"class_list":["post-12","faithco_working_note","type-faithco_working_note","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/working-notes\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/working-notes"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/faithco_working_note"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/working-notes\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/working-notes\/12\/revisions\/55"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"faithco_speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodtree.us\/faithco\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/faithco_speaker?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}