Worthwhile waiting

“I just can’t wait for Christmas!” “How many weeks … days until Christmas?” These and other variations are familiar cries, not only from children, but oftentimes adults as well. “Advent Anticipation Affliction” (as I like to call it) has been around for centuries, though sometimes for different reasons than today’s consumer/consuming focus.

For centuries the Jews cried out, “How long, O Lord?”, waiting for the Messiah. For those who believe and accept Jesus as the Messiah, the celebration of His birth every year is preceded with a unique and special anticipation that includes a certainty of His arrival. It is this certainty and knowing that is key to making the waiting worthwhile, and even becomes part of the celebration!

The certainty and knowing part of anticipation and waiting is something that God wants all believers to experience in every season and reason for waiting upon Him. The certainty and knowing is an evidence of true belief and trust in God. Any uncertainty, anxiety or worry is evidence of unbelief and lack of trust. God wants us to completely believe and trust Him, so that we can have the certainty and knowing in our seasons of waiting. For this reason, He has given us many specific promises and examples in Scripture to encourage us in our belief and trust. Since they are too numerous to all cite here, I share just one of each...

One of my favorite life verses is Isaiah 40:31: “They that wait (hope/trust) upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings like eagles; they shall run and not grow weary; they shall walk and not faint!” I cannot recount how many times God has fulfilled that promise in my life, and why I add the words, “Teach me Lord, teach me Lord, to wait” at the end each time I recite it.

And then, one of the most obvious examples of worthwhile waiting in scripture is between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, when He told His disciples: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:8) And then, on the Day of Pentecost, the promise was fulfilled. Nothing else in the book of Acts or since would have happened, had the disciples not waited, as Jesus told them.

The same is true in our own lives. Too often we rush ahead on our own, not willing to wait for the Lord’s timing or empowering - and mess things up! On the other hand, I can recount numerous times when waiting upon the Lord’s timing and empowering has resulted in greater blessing than what I would have accomplished or settled for!

So, in this season of “Advent Anticipation Affliction”, I pray that you (along with me) will be healed of any such affliction, and experience the full-filling “worthwhile waiting” that comes from the certainty and knowing of God’s faithfulness in all His promises. In this way, I KNOW you will have a Blessed Christmas!

Pastor Jon Pomeroy can be reached and Sandpoint Church of God.