Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Faith Through Drought
Have you ever prayed for something but secretly doubted it would happen? Today's episode explores the profound difference between casual hoping and genuine biblical expectation through the compelling story of a drought-stricken town and an 11-year-old girl's extraordinary demonstration of faith.
This simple yet powerful story illuminates the biblical truth found in Hebrews 11:1, where we discover that faith shows the reality of what we expect, not just what we casually hope might happen. I unpack how replacing our modern understanding of "hope" with biblical "expectation" transforms our prayer life and spiritual resilience. Whether you're facing financial mountains, relationship challenges, or ongoing pandemic fatigue, this message offers renewed courage to maintain your faith even when answers seem delayed. Don't give up on what you've been believing for – instead, bring your umbrella and prepare for God's response.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mac and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. Well, good morning and welcome to the beginning of another week. And as we start this week, I would like to give to you this word of encouragement Don't give up on what you've been hoping for, for what you've been believing for.
Speaker 1:I know that for many of us, we feel that our faith has been tested over the last while and in that testing, we begin to wonder where God is and what he's doing and why things are taking so long. And I know that for you, right now, in the situation that you are in, god is still with you. Don't stop believing for what you need God to do in your life. In Mark 11, verse 22, jesus spoke to his disciples and he said have faith in God. It was a very simple statement have faith in God, because when you have faith in God, then you will know and see his power and his works around you, that he will do things that you could not even believe. But when we are in situations where we are not seeing the answers as quickly as we want, it's very easy for our faith to struggle.
Speaker 1:I want to tell you this story this morning about a small town. There had been no rain for weeks, crops were failing, people were actually having to sell their homes and to move away because they couldn't survive on what they had left. The people of the town became very desperate and they went to the pastor of their church and said we need to pray. We need to get together and pray and believe that God's going to send some rain, because we really, really need it right now. So the pastor arranged to have a prayer meeting that coming Sunday night. As the people arrived for the meeting, he was standing outside, greeting them and talking to them and hearing their words of encouragement for him and hearing their concerns about their situation and what they really needed and wanted and expected that God was going to be able to do. The people continued to talk across the aisles. Before the meeting started, the pastor walked up to the front, raised his hands to try to calm the crowd and silence them so he could begin, and he noticed sitting there in the very front row was a young 11-year-old girl. Her name was Elizabeth, and right beside Elizabeth was a very large, very colorful umbrella. She'd opened it up and set it there on the ground right beside where she was sitting. The pastor smiled when he realized what the message of that umbrella was. He understood that this girl had more faith than anybody else who was there. No one else in the congregation had brought an umbrella. Everybody came to pray for rain, but the little girl had come expecting rain and expecting God to answer.
Speaker 1:That is the key difference for us. When we're talking about faith, much of the time when we're praying we're hoping, like a child hopes for a new bike at Christmas. Maybe it will come, maybe it will be there. But when we use the word hope in Scripture it doesn't mean maybe. Hebrews 11, verse 1,.
Speaker 1:Faith shows the reality of what we hope for. It is the evidence of things we cannot see. The word hope in there can be replaced and understood more clearly with the word expect. Faith shows the reality of what we expect. It is the evidence of things we cannot see. When we expect that God will do what he has said he will do, when we expect that God will do something miraculous and powerful. That's when our faith becomes real and powerful.
Speaker 1:So this morning, I encourage you with this Don't lose your hope, don't lose your expectation that God is going to work in your life and he's going to provide answers that you need, that he's going to move that mountain that's in your way, whether it be financial or in a relationship, or you continue to be overwhelmed with the pandemic and everything we're facing with that. Don't lose your hope, don't lose your expectation that God is going to work in it, because God is God and he is powerful and he is going to be working for you. Keep your faith up, keep believing, keep expecting and know that God is with you. Have a great day, my friends. We'll talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday, right here on Starting Right with Danny Mac.
