Waiting For Christ
The Christmas season is a season of waiting - anticipating, the ending of one year and the coming of a new one. Joseph and Mary awaited the birth of the Savior more than 2,000 years ago. And today, we await His return.
Joseph and Mary were not the only ones awaiting the arrival of their new baby. Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah also awaited the arrival of their own child. Luke 1:7 says, "they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years." Elizabeth became the mother of John the Baptist however, she waited a long time to see this happen. Luke 1:18 tells us Zechariah was old and his wife "advanced in years." They had been waiting all their life to become parents.
What are you waiting for? A breakthrough in your health? A wayward friend or family member to return to the Lord? An answer to prayer? A new home? Your wedding day? A baby? Restoration in your marriage?
Whatever you are waiting for this Christmas season, I pray you wait for the Lord, wait in the Lord, and wait with the Lord.
Wait for the Lord
Psalm 27:14, "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord."
Don't rush ahead of God. Don't grow weary and worry to the point of trying to answer your own prayer in your own strength and method. Wait for Him because His timing is always perfect. Wait for Him, expectantly. Elizabeth could've responded to her infertility in other ways. She could've asked her husband to lay with a maidservant (like Abram and Sarai in Genesis 16). She could've tried, in haste, to take in another child as her own. Or she could've given up all hope that having a child of her own would ever be possible.
The truth of the matter was that Elizabeth was barren. She had failed to "fruit" in her womb. Where are you barren today? What is failing to "fruit" in your life? Whatever it is, I pray that you take it to the Lord and ask for His grace to cover those barren places.
God pays attention to those things we long for. He knows the desires of our hearts. And He knows those anxieties and worries we keep in our minds. He tells us in Psalm 56:8, "You have taken account of my wanderings; put my tears in Your bottle; are they not in Your book?" God keeps track of our sorrows and miseries. He sees every tear we've cried. When your heart cries out, the Lord takes note! He is not absent-minded. Wait for Him. He sees the bigger picture and He is working out all the details on our behalf.
Wait in the Lord
Colossians 1:17, "And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."
You may feel alone, but you are not. God is with you and He sees what you go through. He knows the sadness in your heart. He is aware of those things in your life that you are waiting on Him to intervene or bring action toward. And He not only invites us, He expects us to cast those cares on Him. 1 Peter 5:7, "Cast all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you."
We may be waiting for big things in our life to come to fruition - things we have no control over, or things we don't understand. God is able to carry the load of our worries and sorrows. Elizabeth acknowledges this in Luke 1:25, "This is the way the Lord has dealt with me in the days when He looked with favor upon me, to take away my disgrace upon men." She went away to spend time with the Lord, and to meditate on the destiny of the child within her. She waited in the Lord and His Word.
We can choose to wait in the world by finding worldly ways to cope with our disappointment or unanswered prayer. Or we can choose to wait in the Lord and place our trust and hope in Him to comfort us and give us His peace, when He hasn't provided relief to our sorrows or answers to our prayers. We can wait in Him by seeking spiritual strength from the Lord, staying nourished through His Word and faithful in prayer, and depending on Him for strength when we are weak. Luke 1:6 tells us Elizabeth and her husband "were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord." Even before God answered her prayer for a child, she continued waiting in Him. We wait in Him by acknowledging God's sovereign control of all things and coming to terms with our dependence upon Him.
Wait with the Lord
Psalm 139:7-10, "I can never escape from Your Spirit! I can never get away from Your presence! If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I go down to Sheol, You are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there Your hand will guide me, and Your strength will support me."
When we are waiting for the Lord to intervene in our life, situation, or circumstance, we aren't sitting idle and twiddling our thumbs as if we were in a dentist's office or the license office waiting for our name to be called. When we wait with the Lord, we are actively waiting for Him to respond. When we wait with Him, we are not distant or in some place, obscured, where He cannot find us. We are actively serving, faithfully obeying, and diligently partnering with Him in the work for His kingdom. We aren't side-lined or taken out of His workforce. We still have work to do for Him and even while we are waiting for Him to answer our prayer and work on our behalf, we have the opportunity to witness of Him to the world.
When Elizabeth was waiting for God to give her a child, she didn't stop serving Him. Her devotion to God was not based on His gifts. She served the Lord and was faithful and obedient to His Word because He is good. Whatever it is you're waiting for the Lord to do in your life, remember He is good. Sometimes when we are waiting for the Lord to intervene and respond to our prayers, we can be tempted to grow weary of waiting and harden our hearts toward God's goodness. We get tired of waiting and we give up on God's ability or desire to "help" us.
"Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that He may come and shower righteousness upon you." Hosea 10:12
Are there hard places in your heart that have become calloused because you have given up hope in your time of waiting? If so, today is the day to break up the hard ground of your heart by seeking the Lord. Hard soil can't receive healthy seed or grow a good crop. Instead, it is overrun with weeds of neglect. You need to sow a good seed for it to grow, which begins with surrender. Recognize God is the only way of redemption and seek His face. Cry out to Him with a repentant heart. Let the Holy Spirit till up the soil of your heart, removing those things that are opposed to God, and let the Word of God plant the seeds of righteousness. Seek the Lord in your waiting; He cares for you.