Category: Advent 2017 – Waiting

Waiting is never easy or fun as we have seen throughout this period of Advent. But Christmas is here at last! May God bless you. My gift to you today is to pass along a favorite poem, author unknown but appreciated. Read it aloud and enjoy its words of wisdom as God explains the benefits of the times when you and I sit on the sidelines.

WAIT

Desperately, helplessly, longingly,

I cried:

Quietly, patiently, lovingly,

God replied.

I pled and I wept

for a clue to my fate,

And the Master so gently said,

“Child, you must wait.”

Wait?

You say wait, my indignant reply.

Lord, I need answers;

I need to know why!

Is your hand shortened?

Or have you not heard?

By Faith, I have asked and am

claiming Your Word.

My future and all to which

I can relate

hangs in the balance, and

You tell me to WAIT?

I’m needing a ‘yes,’

a go-ahead sign,

or even a ‘no’ to which I can resign.

And Lord, You promised

that if we believe

we need but to ask,

and we shall receive.

And Lord, I’ve been asking,

and this is my cry:

I’m weary of asking!

I need a reply!

Then quietly, softly,

I learned of my fate

as my Master replied

once again,

“You must

wait.”

So, I slumped in my chair,

defeated and taut

and grumbled to God,

“So I’m waiting…for what?”

He seemed, then, to kneel,

and His eyes wept with mine,

And tenderly said,

“I could give you a sign.

I could shake the heavens

and darken the sun,

I could raise the dead

and cause mountains to run.

All you seek, I could give, and

pleased you would be.

You would have all you want – But

you wouldn’t know Me.

You’d not know the depth of My love

for each saint;

You’d not know the power

that I give to the faint;

You’d not learn to see through the

clouds of despair;

You’d not learn to trust just by

knowing I’m there;

You’d not know the joy of

resting in Me

When darkness and silence

were all you could see.

You’d never experience that

fullness of love

As the peace of My Spirit

descends like a dove;

You’d know that I give and

save…(for a start),

But you’d not know the depth

or beat of My heart.

The glow of My comfort

late into the night,

The faith that I give

when you walk without sight,

The depth that’s beyond getting

just what you asked

Of an infinite God that makes what

you have LAST.

You’d never know,

should your pain quickly flee,

What it means that

“My grace is sufficient for Thee.”

Yes, your dreams for your loved

ones overnight would come true,

But oh, the Loss!

If I lost what I’m doing in you!

So be silent, My Child,

and in time you will see

That the greatest of gifts

is to get to know Me.

And though oft’ may My answers

seem terribly late,

My most precious answer

of all is still,

“Wait.”

(author unknown)

The malls are full of last-minute shoppers racing hither and yon, trying to find just the right gifts – or any gift! – for a boss or a friend or family member. Do you ever feel like you are the only one waiting, while the rest of the world rushes on past you?

Scripture assures us that you and I are not the only ones in a holding pattern. In Romans 8:21,22, Paul tells us that all nature is anxious to be released from the curse of Adam. It groans as it waits for freedom from death and decay. And then Rev. 6:9-11 speaks of souls of martyrs that rest under God’s altar and who also await redemption. They cry out, “How long will it be, Lord, before you avenge our blood?” And God tells them to wait a little longer.

In Rev. 7:1-3, we learn that even the angels await release. The Spirit tells the angels, “Wait! Don’t hurt the land…until we have placed the seal of God on the foreheads of his servants.”

If you are tired of waiting for God to act, take heart and remember that your wait is short, almost a pittance, compared to these others who have waited for hundreds, even thousands of years for God to complete his eternal plan. But one day we will all rejoice together in the throne room of God!

We are almost through Advent and anxious for Christmas to arrive! Our period of waiting will soon be over! Yet Advent has been a good time to slow down and remember all God’s blessings

When Saul traveled on the road to Damascus, he was in a hurry. He had a full agenda of things he planned to accomplish there, including persecuting the followers of Jesus. Suddenly, he saw a bright light and heard a voice calling his name. He encountered Christ and was struck blind. There on the road, all his plans stopped dead in their tracks. God forced him to wait.

We can only imagine how Saul felt, sitting in darkness and wondering when his eyesight might return. He had no idea how long this blindness would remain. Forced to slow down, he experienced the joy of knowing Christ, but also the regret for all those whom he had beaten and cast in jail. Saul remembered all the pain he had inflicted on others. He likely wondered what lay ahead, and if God could ever use a sinner like him.

As you wait for your own hopes to become reality, perhaps God is forcing you to slow down. Take some time today to consider ways you may have hurt others in the past. Ask God to remove your own blindness and then confess any selfishness and pride.

Every year, Christmas arrives predictably on December 25th, a fact which makes our holiday waiting a bit more bearable. At least we know when the waiting period will end. However, when I submit a book proposal, I have no idea when a publisher will get back to me. When you pray for a neighbor to accept Christ, you have no idea when your prayers will be answered. We cannot see into the future. If we knew when the end would be in sight, waiting might be just a bit easier.

Jesus laid aside his divine omniscience as he came to earth, but he had a general sense of the future. When his mother asked him to solve a problem at the wedding in Cana, he told her, “My hour has not yet come.” (John 3:4) When his brothers challenged him to attend a festival in Jerusalem, he said, “I will not go up to this festival because my time has not yet come.” (John 7:6) He waited.

Jesus waited, but not, as children long for Christmas, with excitement and anticipation of gifts. Jesus knew that the “hour” that lay ahead of him would bring great pain and sorrow. As the time of his death drew closer, he warned his disciples that he would soon leave them. “I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2) In the garden he prayed in agony, “Father, the hour has come.”

To get to the joy of the resurrection, he had to first pass through the pain of the cross. What about your hope for the future? Are you ready to face the pain or even suffering that may lie between you and your dream?

If you took that man-on-the-street survey of key characters in the Christmas story, one name at the top of your list would be that of Mary. She too learned to wait.

Just as Zechariah sat on the sidelines for nine long months throughout his wife’s pregnancy, Mary waited through nine long months of her own pregnancy. People in town whispered about her condition. She faced anxiety as to whether Joseph would reject her. Religious leaders could have opted to stone her for possible infidelity.

For Mary, the wait was difficult but relief came as she was able to spend a portion of that time with her cousin Elizabeth. Visiting Zechariah and his wife, Mary was at last able to speak freely of having seen an angel. Her cousin had to understand: After all, had not Zechariah had the same experience? No one else alive at that time could have shared such an experience. No angel had brought a message from God for almost 400 years.

As you wait on God during this season, look around. Who else shares your experience? Is it easier to wait when you have company on the road?

If you did a survey on the street about key characters in the Christmas story, the name Zachariah would not likely rise to the top of the list, yet in Luke’s account, his story fills almost half of the first chapter!

An angel appeared to Zechariah and told him that he would have a baby and his son would prepare the way for the Messiah. Since Zechariah and his wife were both already senior citizens, Zechariah expressed some doubt. “How can I know this will happen?” The angel replied that the priest would be unable to speak until the promise was fulfilled. Many commentators feel the priest was also deaf during this period.

So Zechariah settled in to wait. Nine long months inched by. Finally the baby was born, but Zechariah’s voice did not return. Day after day, Zechariah woke up still unable to talk. He likely reviewed in his mind all the angel had said. Would he be without a voice until this child grew up and actually led his people back to the Lord?

The truth is, Zechariah had no idea when his wait would be over and his voice would return.

Zechariah did not waste his time during this waiting period. The list of cross references in your Bible next to Luke 1:68-79 is like a radioactive tracer indicating the prophetic passages the priest read while preparing for his son’s birth: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, and even Malachi. When Zechariah’s voice returned on the 8th day, he was ready to teach his son, John the Baptist, about the coming Messiah.

As you are waiting for God to answer your prayer, why not use the time to study His Word?

Every year, starting in January, I start praying about a theme for the next set of Advent devotionals. Sometimes the Lord allows me to wait until mid-November before revealing the theme, and other times he tells me early. This year’s theme came to me in late Spring. But the key element here is prayer. Before I even begin writing, I have prayed long and hard about choosing the topic.

Nehemiah was serving the king and living a routine life in Babylon when his brother Hanani returned from a trip to Jerusalem. Hanani described how weak and vulnerable the city was because its walls had been destroyed and its gates were burned.

Shocked and saddened, Nehemiah wanted to take action. But before he spoke to the king, he paused to fast and pray for four months. He might have waited even longer, but the king initiated a conversation about what caused Nehemiah to be so sad. Sending up one more brief prayer, Nehemiah revealed his burden for the city of Jerusalem. The result was the king’s support for the entire project. Nehemiah left his court duties, arrived in Jerusalem and less than two months later, the entire wall was rebuilt!

Are you waiting for God to act? Why not use this time for prayer so that you will be ready when he calls you to action?

(Due to my coming home from the hospital yesterday, Advent Day 15 was late being posted. You will find it below today’s post.)

When I was a child, our neighbor was one of the first to own an electric carving knife. He showed it off proudly every chance he had, so the next Christmas my mother bought him an electric carving fork. The fork had an impressive electric cord that extended from the handle with a plug at the end. Mind you, the fork did nothing. The cord sent no electric current to the tines, but it did give the impression of power. Otherwise it was useless.

When Esther entered the harem of King Ahasuerus, she may have felt as useless as that electric carving fork. For a whole year she sat with the other beauty candidates going through beauty treatments, six months of treatments with oil of myrrh and then six more months involving spices and cosmetics. During that time she did not even see the king. And after the king selected her as his queen in the seventh year of his reign, she waited another five years without a clue why God had placed her in her role as queen.

At last the plot unfolded. Haman planned to kill all the Jews in Susa. When Esther’s cousin Mordecai learned of the plot, he approached Esther saying, “Who knows whether you have not attained royalty for just such a time as this?” (4:14)

Do you ever feel like your time spent waiting is wasted? Do you feel like you are useless while others are busy about the Lord’s work? Rest assured that God has a plan and will call you into action when he is ready.

During December, it sometimes seems that the whole world stops its normal routine and shifts its focus to shopping and office parties and eating. I, for example, put my normal writing projects on hold so that I can focus on preparing these devotional thoughts during Advent.’

When the people of Israel went into captivity in Babylon, the prophet Jeremiah told them that they would return to Judah in 70 years. That was a long time to wait and to set aside normal routines, but the question was, what should they do during that waiting period?

The answer was clearly stated among Jeremiah’s prophecies. In Jer. 29:7, he said, “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will have welfare.”

What should you and I be doing while we wait for God to act on our hopes and dreams? What should we be doing here on earth when we know that one day we will be headed to heaven? The answer is the same for us as for the exiles in Babylon: seek the good of the city, state and nation where we live now.

Have you ever ordered a Christmas gift on line and then waited and waited for your order to appear? Everything was paid for, but the package never arrived. Sometimes the person lost the order in cyberspace, but other times the person at the other end never got around to putting the package in the mail. How do you know when to wait and when to stop waiting and act? The writer of Ecclesiastes wrote there is a time for everything, including a time to be quiet and a time to speak up.

In 2 Kings 12, we see a story about just such a situation. Soon after young King Joash came to the throne, he ordered the priests to collect offerings to repair God’s Temple in Jerusalem. The priests gladly collected the money, but they never carried through on the repairs. By the 23rd year of Joash’s reign, the Temple was still not repaired!

After waiting more than two decades and watching the priests spend the money on their own needs instead of God’s house, Joash finally called them to account. He said, “Enough! From now on, all the money must be spent on getting the Temple in good condition.” He no longer left the work to the priests. He hired contractors to carry out the repairs.

When delay is due to sin and selfishness, we need to stop waiting and speak up!

PS: I head in for major spinal surgery today. Prayers are welcome! My husband Gene will continue to post these devotionals for me while I am in the hospital!