How to Enter the Year With Hope and Expectation | DAY 5 DEVOTIONAL

Morning Emphasis: Trusting God with what lies ahead

As we stand at the beginning of a new year, many of us want to feel hopeful, but we are careful. 

Life has taught us that not every expectation is met, not every prayer is answered quickly, and not every season turns out the way we imagined.

So we say we’re hopeful, but quietly we brace ourselves in case things don’t turn out as we expect.

Scripture, however, invites us into a different posture, one that is not naïve, but faithful.

God spoke these words to a people who were not stepping into freedom, but living in exile.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

These words were not spoken to people whose circumstances had already changed. They were spoken to people who were waiting, adjusting, and learning to trust God in an unfamiliar season.

Hope, then, is not tied to ease or comfort.

It is tied to who God is.

A well-known example of this kind of hope is found in the story of Abraham.

God promised Abraham a future that seemed impossible: a son, a nation, a legacy. Yet Abraham spent years waiting, aging, and wrestling with the gap between promise and reality. 

Still, Scripture tells us that Abraham chose to believe God, even when the evidence around him suggested otherwise.

Abraham’s hope was not rooted in timing; it was rooted in trust.

Romans 4:18–21 (NIV) “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”

We can also look at Hannah.

Hannah entered the temple burdened, misunderstood, and desperate for change. She had no guarantee of how God would answer her prayer, yet she left that place with peace before anything in her circumstances shifted. 

Her hope did not come from a fulfilled promise. It came from surrendering her future into God’s hands.

1 Samuel 1:10-11, “In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” 

The story continues in verses 15-18 as the priest accused her of being drunk as she was praying: “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief. Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him. She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.”

That is what expectation looks like in Scripture.

Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Faith allows us to expect God to work without demanding to know how. It gives shape to hope even when the future is still unclear.

In real life, this means choosing to enter the year believing that God is at work, even when plans are incomplete, finances are uncertain, relationships are unresolved, or answers are still pending.

Hope does not deny reality. It anchors us within it.

To enter the year with hope and expectation is not to ignore what has been, but to trust that God is greater than what has been. Oh that’s good. Family, to enter the year with hope and expectation is not to ignore what has been, but to trust that God is greater than what has been. Hallelujah.

As this week comes to a close, let this be our posture:not guarded optimism, but grounded faith.

Because when our hope is placed in God, expectation becomes steady, and the future, though unseen, is held securely in His hands. 

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