Skip to main content

Waiting in Hope

 Advent is a season of "expectant waiting".   For some, it's waiting for Christmas day's festivities and all the preparation that goes into that.  It might be the expectancy of loved ones coming to be together and waiting for travel days.  Waiting is not always easy - especially for kids!

Not all waiting is joyful.  I have a friend who is battling ALS - Lou Gehrig's disease.  There is no known cure for ALS...but there is God!  She has faith that believes in God and so she will never give up believing God can change all of her circumstances around.  And so she waits...in faith, confident of God, waiting in Hope.

Have you ever considered how much of the Advent story is surrounded by people who waited?  From early on God made promises of what he was going to do to redeem and heal his creation.  To Abraham, God spoke saying: 

Genesis 12:2-3
 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

What did God have in mind?  From Abraham came Israel, and from Israel came Jesus...but not for a long, long time.  Waiting...expectantly, in faith, waiting.  It is a gift from God to be able to wait and not become disillusioned.   That describes my friend with ALS...she waits in faith for God, trusting and refusing to allow bitterness or disillusion to enter in.  

How does one wait in hope, expectantly in faith?  Here's my friend C. H. Spurgeon once again:

“Wait, I say, on the Lord.” —Psalm 27:14

 "Our heart is strengthened by waiting upon God because we thus receive a mysterious strength through the incoming of the eternal Spirit into our souls. No man can explain this, but many of us know what it is. We do not know how the Holy Spirit operates, but we are conscious that after a season of prayer we are often much refreshed and feel as if we had been made young again. 

We have gone in before the Lord haggard and worn, even despondent. We draw near God and have felt our spirit revive. Sometimes our prayer was mostly a groan, yet we did wait upon the Lord, and the eternal strength came into us. 

How wonderfully do the secret springs of omnipotence break into the feeble soul and fill it with might in the inner man. Through the sacred anointing of the Holy Spirit, we have been made to shout for joy. We have been so glad in the Lord that we could not contain our joy. He that made us has put His hand a second time to the work and restored to us the joy of His salvation, filled our emptiness, removed our weakness, and triumphed in us gloriously. (Spurgeon, Charles H.. Joy Upon Joy . Whitaker House).  

We wait...in Hope...believing in our God.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hands Full of Parcels

"A Man whose hands are full of parcels can't receive a gift."   - C. S. Lewis Romans 4:13-16 (ESV) 13  For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14  For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15  For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. 16  That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all... The last four days have been best described by the word "fatigue".  It's not an uncommon word in our vocabulary.  Listless, tired, sore.  1300 miles of car travel, being sick, not sleeping well, and eating poorly all add up to the word - fatigue.   Someone onc...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Tabernacle

The readings today are Exodus 36, 37, 38 I wanted to post some pictures of what these various parts of the Tabernacle looked like. It's not the easiest read in the world, but if you persevere through it, you can get a picture of all the different pieces that made up the tabernacle. It is a replica of the various parts of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness: First thing in the chapter listed is the outside of the tabernacle which consisted of curtains tied together and put on cross bars through loops. Next at the beginning of 37 is the table and lampstand: Also, the altar of incense: And, the altar for the burnt offering which was in the courtyard: Finally, the courtyard which made it all come together: Hope that helps with what it might have all looked like. Most importantly, this was their "place" of worship they were building. I hope you have a great day of worship. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
1 comment
Read more

The difference between defending and explaining

The news of recent has focused the suffering of Christians in the middle east who have been martyred for their faith in Christ at the hands of Islamic Terrorists. Through the centuries many Christians have lost their lives as a result of their faith. For us, who live in America, there is little chance that we would have this happen here - but it's entirely possibly that terrorism will strike out at Christians sometime.  But, for many Christians in the western world - especially here in the U.S. - being a Christians who believes God's word there is a form of persecution that is defined by words like "ostracized", "passed over", "ridiculed", and more. What do we do in the face of opposition to faith? When the Apostle Peter writes to the early believers who are undergoing great pressure, even persecution for their faith in Jesus, he gives them this charge. 1 Peter 3:8-18 8  Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly lov...
1 comment
Read more