God bestows many blessings on us, but he never guarantees our health, wealth, safety, or satisfaction. He never promises to answer every prayer as we wish.
If reborn believers cannot count on God to always provide these things, what can we rightfully expect from him?
True Contentment
God gives reborn believers access to his personal contentment.
God is truly content by nature. His innate contentment is immutable. It never modulates circumstantially.
God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, takes up residence in us when we are reborn spiritually.
As we walk in harmony with him, he manifests in us the aspects of his nature that comprise his true contentment.
These attributes are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
The Bible calls their manifestation in us the fruit of the Spirit.
We can experience God’s true contentment in any situation because it is a function of his presence in us and our communion with him, not our circumstances.
The more diligently we cultivate our relationship with God and walk in harmony with him, the more consistently we experience and emit his natural contentment.
Stamina
God supplies the strength, hope, peace, and comfort we need to endure distress. He carries the burdens we give him so we can travel light.
All we have to do is walk in harmony with him.
Freedom
God frees us from the tyranny of our carnal appetites and desires.
True freedom is not the license to do whatever we want. It is the ability to make the right moral choice when immoral alternatives are alluring.
As we walk in harmony with God, he cleanses our hearts, gives us noble desires, and strengthens our self-control so we can abide by his principles and precepts.
Although we remain subject to temptations after our spiritual rebirth, God always provides a way for us to mentally or physically escape them.
But if we do yield to unrighteousness— intentionally or unintentionally—he grants forgiveness upon our confession and repentance so we can restore our communion with him.
Self-Esteem
God provides the foundation for an accurate, healthy self-image.
God considers us significant. His assessments are the absolute truth. Therefore, we are genuinely valuable, no matter how bleak our past, how recent our unrighteousness, or how others may perceive us.
Knowing that God has forgiven us enables us to forgive ourselves. Understanding that he accepts us as we are—unconditionally—enables us likewise to accept ourselves.
God loves everyone equally, regardless of our strengths, weaknesses, successes, failures, or status. We, therefore, have no reason ever to feel inferior or superior to anyone else.
Purpose
God infuses our lives with meaning and purpose as we walk in harmony with him.
Mundane things become his gifts for which we give thanks. Work turns into a form of worship. Nature becomes evidence of his power and majesty. Other people become conduits of his aid. Or valuable souls he wants to love and encourage through us.
We set new performance standards for ourselves because we want everything we do, say, and think to reflect well on him.
Fulfillment
God gives us opportunities for personal fulfillment as we care for others on his behalf.
The Holy Spirit equips every reborn believer with one or more special abilities that help churches function effectively and minister productively. We experience deep satisfaction when God uses our gifts to advance his eternal cause.
Guidance
God guides us as we walk in harmony with him.
His Word outlines the priorities and goals that please him and enrich us. It warns us about specific mistakes that can permanently complicate our lives. It offers general guidelines that help us avoid lesser mishaps.
God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, gives us desires for the things that truly satisfy our souls. He lights our path and directs our steps as we pursue these interests, subject to what he ultimately deems best for us and those we influence.
Goodness
God ensures we are always in the presence of goodness worthy of our gratitude, even amid affliction.
These good things may seem trivial relative to the intensity of our suffering. In dire situations, they may be limited to the comfort of his nearness and the assurance of heaven. Nonetheless, we are always in proximity to goodness.
God also produces goodness from our bad situations, regardless of their severity or our culpability, as we walk in harmony with him. This goodness materializes in either our lives, the lives of those around us, or both.
Limits
God sets boundaries for us.
He never lets our suffering exceed our coping ability as we walk in harmony with him. He never allows us to encounter temptations we cannot resist. He limits how long our moral failures negatively impact our future generations.
Worldview
God, through his Word, provides a rational framework for defining reality.
His designs, descriptions, assessments, principles, prescriptions, precepts, and boundaries inform an accurate worldview.
God tells us who we are, how we got here, why we are here, how life got messed up, what we can do about it, and how everything turns out.
Consistency
We can count on God to be consistent.
God is immutable. His attributes, truths, motivations, and goals never change. His promises are forever operative. The entirety of his Word is always enlightening.
God is neither arbitrary nor capricious. Our transgressions never diminish his love for us or his willingness to care for us. He is always faithful.
Access
God grants us direct access to him in every situation. He hears all our prayers. His aid is always available.
Empathy
We can expect God always to be empathetic.
God sees the entirety of our life concurrently. Therefore, he knows every detail of our past, present, and future afflictions at any given moment.
However, because Jesus encountered the same pains and sorrows we face, God also understands how we feel as we endure distress.
He grieves when we grieve and rejoices when we rejoice.
Heaven
God grants reborn believers a free, irrevocable pass to heaven, so we always have the hope of eternal bliss no matter how bleak our present circumstances.
The joy and ecstasy of living in heaven will be infinitely better than our best moments on earth.
Read More About What We Can Expect From God
God promises to come to our aid amid affliction. He produces redemptive goodness through our suffering.
