Contrary to Hope, Begin to Expect Anyway

I’m excited about what I’m putting in your hands today. I know you’ve been through some things. I know some situations have gone on so long that expectation dried up a long time ago. Today I want to give you something that will restart it.

Because this is what faith requires next — not just the promise, not just the presence of God, not just the choice to believe. It requires expectation. And the kind Abraham had to build was the hardest kind — contrary to hope.

Bible hope is not wishing — it’s showing up at the airport.

Let me clear something up first. When the Bible talks about hope, it doesn’t mean what most people mean when they say it. “I hope things get better.” That’s wishing. Biblical hope means positive expectation.

Here’s the difference. If I told you I’m flying in on American Airlines Flight 206 at 11:38 tomorrow night — and you actually hoped I’d show up — you’d be at the airport at 11:30. Not sitting at home waiting for a phone call first.

You’d be there because you expected me. That’s what God is asking from you. Not wishing. Not “maybe it’ll happen.” Showing up at the airport.

Abraham had no reason to hope — until God spoke.

When God first met Abraham, he was somewhere in his sixties. He and Sarah had been trying to have children their entire married life and failed. So much so that Abraham had already accepted the reality and made a plan — Eliezer of Damascus would be his heir. He wasn’t expecting a child. He was expecting to die without one.

Then God showed up and gave him a promise. Not just a child — descendants as numerous as the stars, as countless as the sand on the seashore, and from his line the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

And Romans 4:18 says this about what happened next:

“Who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’”

— Romans 4:18 (NKJV)

Contrary to hope — in hope — believed. There was no natural reason to expect. Sixty-plus years of evidence said it would never happen. And yet, the moment God spoke, something shifted. A new expectation was born. Not because anything had changed in the natural — but because someone had given him His Word.

Faith has nothing to work on without expectation.

Hebrews 11:1 says faith is the substance of things hoped for — things expected. Which means if there’s no expectation, faith has nothing to give substance to.

This is why people pray and walk away still troubled. They’ve said the words, but they have no expectation that anything is going to change. It’s like asking Jeff to cover your mortgage payment, him agreeing, and then spending the rest of the week worrying about how you’re going to pay your mortgage.

Did you believe him or didn’t you?

If you actually believed Jeff was going to show up with the money by Friday, you wouldn’t be thinking about this month’s mortgage anymore. You’d already be thinking about next month’s. Because this month’s is done. It’s settled. The man gave you his word and you trust him.

That’s what expectation looks like. “I don’t care what the bank said. I don’t care what the doctors said. God gave me His Word. This thing is settled.”

David saw Goliath as already dead.

There’s a moment in the David and Goliath story that most people miss. David starts out talking about going to fight Goliath. But somewhere in his confession, something shifts. He stops talking about the fight and starts talking about the aftermath.

“I’m not just going to kill you. I’m going to give the carcass of the host of the Philistines today. You’re all going to die.”

By the time David ran toward that army, Goliath was already dead in his mind. It was a settled issue. He was stepping over a dead man — the man just didn’t know it yet. He had a covenant with God, a promise he was standing on, and an expectation so solid that he ran toward the giant instead of away from him.

That’s what contrary to hope, in hope believed produces. An expectation so real that you run toward the problem instead of away from it.

It’s time to change what you’re expecting.

I don’t know your situation. But I know there’s someone reading this right now who has been in it so long that you’ve stopped expecting anything to change. Maybe you’ve already started making plans around the problem instead of believing God through it.

Contrary to any reason to expect — begin to expect anyway. Because now you have the Word of God on it. And the Word changes everything.

If you’re in a hospital bed, stop seeing yourself in the hospital bed. See yourself taking a walk. See yourself at your children’s wedding. See yourself watching them graduate. Let the image of the outcome replace the image of the problem.

You will live and not die and declare the works of the Lord. That is His Word. And it is enough to build a whole new expectation on.

Fight To Win. Start today.