Great Expectations

“I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me.” Habakkuk 2:1

It is so much easier to recognize something when we have placed in our minds what we are expecting to see. We formulate the mental picture as our eyes scan the horizon. When we expect to see something, the recognition is always easier.

We have to get a visual for Habakkuk’s wordage on this verse. The importance of a rampart was to provide an embankment for keeping watch against any defensive move. Stationing one’s self was to assume a position in military where the personnel would remain awaiting a duty to be handed down. That person on guard post was not to move until he had his orders. There was a definite sense of expectancy that these orders would arrive and movement could not be made until they were received.

If we would only believe with expectancy that our moves are orchestrated such as Habakkuk believed. He knew to watch for God’s solution, to expect to hear God’s voice and to sense God’s presence.

As Christians we lack this sense of expectancy when lifting our prayers to God. My grandmother always included in her prayers thanksgiving for God moving in her situation before He ever lifted a finger. Her spirit of expectancy was paralleled to Habakkuk as she stood on her guard post watching the horizon for God to work in His divine manner.

God pleads with us as He did to Habakkuk in 1:5, “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days – You would not believe if you were told.”

We can neither anticipate nor understand the workings of God but we can believe and expect Him to move in our circumstances in ways we never dreamed. All words in Scripture are covenant words, words powered with love and divine promise.

Don’t just anticipate God’s voice but expect it!