Moving Upward Through the Storms: How to Have Expectant Faith in Prayer
In our daily Group Bible Study devotionals, our focus is on Growing Faith in God, and Faith is Expectation. Our aim is to shift our faith from passivity to expecting God to answer us in response to our faith. Let’s begin:
Scripture Reading: “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” — Philippians 3:14
Overcoming Life's Trials: The Salmon Ladder
While living in England in 1982, my wife Sandy and I took her American parents on a tour of Scotland. One memorable stop was Pitlochry. When engineers built a hydroelectric dam beside the town on the River Tummel, they constructed a 310-meter-long salmon ladder with 34 interconnected chambers. This allowed roughly 5,000 salmon each year to navigate around the dam and swim upstream to spawn.
The Christian life resembles that salmon ladder. Throughout our earthly journey, God leads us through trials and adversity not to break us, but to keep our faith exercised as we press toward spiritual maturity. The apostle Paul called this trajectory the "upward call." Each stage of this upstream journey teaches us vital lessons about perseverance in prayer.
What Expectant Faith in Prayer Looks Like
Exercising this kind of faith requires an expectant attitude. Growing up aboard my father’s commercial fishing boat, the Why Worry, I learned what expectant faith looks like in everyday life. Every day at sea, we expected to catch fish. Though we could not see beneath the surface, we trusted the fish were there and spent hours towing our nets along the seabed, fully confident of a harvest. My father was a risk-taker who sailed into trusted fishing spots even during severe gales. While I disliked the freezing cold and winter storms—preferring to stay safe in harbor like fair-weather fishermen—my father had an uncanny intuition and a relentless determination. His expectations and commitment directly fueled his success.
As a "fisher of men," I frequently encounter fair-weather believers who abandon their spiritual journey when circumstances become turbulent. Like salmon that give up when facing the rushing waters of a ladder, many believers simply do not know what it means to expect answers when they pray. Yet, Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that God is actively searching for those who seek Him with confident expectation:
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” — Hebrews 11:6
Faith is not a passive sentiment; it is an active, expectant posture that drives us to His throne of grace to present our needs.
Transforming Daily Prayer from Duty to Conversation
When we live with expectant faith, we stop evaluating our spiritual lives by the current weather conditions. We learn that adversity is often the precise location where God reveals His reward. If we genuinely believe that God hears us and delights in rewarding those who seek Him, our daily prayer lives will transform from a cold duty into an expectant conversation. Keith Thomas
Practical Application Questions
Identify Your "Fair-Weather" Tendencies: Examine your prayer life during difficult seasons. Do you tend to retreat to the safety of the harbor when trial storms hit, or do you head straight to prayer expecting God to meet you in the gale? Choose one current trial in your life and write down a specific, expectant prayer regarding it today.
Prepare Your Nets: Expectant faith prepares for the answer before the answer arrives. My father made sure our trawl nets were clean, repaired, and ready before we reached the fishing grounds. Look at what you are currently asking God for. What practical step of preparation can you take today to demonstrate to God that you expect Him to answer?
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Deepen Your Faith & Group Bible Study Resources
If this meditation encouraged your walk with Christ, explore our full video teaching on "Expectant Faith" on our YouTube channel. Click the link in the description below to dive deeper into growing your daily faith, available with subtitles in 70 languages. Click the following link:
· Bookmark this page to browse all our free 3-minute Bible meditations.
· Read the full study online: Expectant Faith: How to Grow in Faith
· Series: This excerpt is taken from the series Growing Faith in God
· Visit the Keith Thomas YouTube Channel for more teachings.
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