Hi 884heid, indeed, expectant faith comes after one accepts natural faith. So, it'd be wise to refute Descartes in total depth. Descartes challenge to Thomism was very serious. The people who have natural faith, can remain with their natural faith, never moving beyond that. The problem with this is, that if we accept both Doctrinal & Natural Faith, why would we stop there? The whole point of the Bible is to have such  unshakeable expectant faith. One might not accept expectant faith because their faith might not result in the effects that are desired, but this doesn't mean that this is necessarily due to a lack of faith. This can indicate a time of trial and test where God preserves our faith only to bring light to it when he sees fit, or the rubber hits the road and we lose our faith totally.

However, if you have doctrinal faith and natural faith, that might not necessarily happen. And you know that he's there.