Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Life in the Waiting

"And we desire that each of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." -Hebrews 6:11-12

Sometimes it seems the things in our lives we believe God has called us to are never going to come. We keep waiting. We begin to question if we are really called. We begin to question whether we are on the right track, if we've veered off the road. We wait. We begin to question whether God will truly bring us to the place of fulfillment of the promise. Yet we continue to wait.

As I prepare for the Christmas season and reflect on God coming to Earth as man, it amazes me to think of the wonderful and awesome length that our Heavenly Father went to so that His promise would be fulfilled to restore us to relationship. Immanuel, God with us.

I think about the hundreds of years between the Old Testament and the coming of Christ, the waiting between the promise and the fulfillment. The people of God lived their entire lives waiting. If I had lived then, how would my life have developed? Would I have been sensitive to listen for the Lord and anticipate His coming, opening myself up to the waiting? Would I have wrapped myself in the letter of the law as the Pharisees and Sadducee's did, guarding myself from possible disappointment? Not truly living to the fullest in the waiting. Would I, like Simeon and Anna, serve the Lord with joy, waiting with anticipation for the promised One - ready to recognize the Christ?

"God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" -Numbers 23:19


As we wait to see the promises of God fulfilled in our lives, we have to remember that the One who has promised us is not a man. In the waiting I often find myself thinking of God and the things of God and associate human shortfalls with them. Is God mad at me because I didn't do something? Did I fall short? Don't little things make me mad at times and I withhold things from people? Then I'm reminded by the simplicity of His sweet Spirit that He's not a man that He should lie, that He is faithful to fulfill all that He has promised. As I wait, there is a journey. Even when things don't look like I thought they would, He is faithful in the journey that is waiting. Many times takes twists and turns we did not foresee, hills that contain illness, heartache, or waiting not knowing or understanding why.

"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful." -Hebrews 10:23

As I consider life in the waiting, I reflect on how I am living my life. I must live my life in the assurance that He is faithful. I must live my life in in the peace and full assurance of hope that He who promised is faithful. Most of all, I must live during the waiting, I must take the journey, no matter where it leads. The journey does have a guide, and all I have to do is follow. I will allow this Christmas season to remind me also of the lengths my Father will go to in fulfilling the things He has promised.
Prayer: Thank you for your faithfulness, thank you that you are faithful even when I am not. Father, thank you for the journey You have given me in life and that I can not only live it in Your peace, but share Your peace and love throughout the twists and turns. Thank you for the fullness of life I have in You! Father, I pray that you would increase my faith where it is weary. Holy Spirit, I ask that as I wait on You, that You would open my eyes every day to the faithfulness of God in my life. In Jesus mighty name, amen.

1 comment:

Spring M Fricks said...

You are a true example of faith. Bless you my friend. You have no idea how many lives you inspire.