Wait - Week 2

Invitation

Find a quiet place. Close your eyes. Breathe in and breathe out. God is here with you in this place. Be still and turn your mind and heart upon Him.

Scripture Reading(s)

As we enter the second week of Advent, I want to invite you to find a quiet space and read Psalm 40:4-8.  Read it a second time, aloud if you can. If you have the time, read it again a third time, being attentive to what words seem to move you, questions you might have, or thoughts and feelings that the text evokes. Do the same with scriptures below.

Psalm 131
Luke 1:5-25
Hebrews 6:13-20

Reflect

“When the clouds come rolling in
and disappointment weighs on me
When Your goodness seems so far
And I wonder if You see
When I can’t see You or understand
When I can’t see how this is Your plan,
I will wait. I will wait for You God. I will wait. “
— Jalene Buyer, Wait

Waiting is never something I have been good at. I’d like to talk with someone who has mastered the art of it, I know I need to learn a thing or two. On my way home from picking my daughter up from school there is a stretch of road that is always backed up that goes under an overpass. I shamefully admit that every time I near this part of the drive, I always veer right to go up the off ramp, just to go straight through the lights and down the other side back onto the road I just left, into a position ahead of where I would have been had I stayed in the line up of vehicles.
There is something about being stagnant and not moving that goes against some natural instinct. My children also struggle with this. When we are driving and they see a green light ahead but no one is moving, one of them will often yell, “Mom! Green means go!” (If you have a little one at home, you might get the Paw Patrol reference). 
We don’t like to be stagnant. To have to be still. To wait.

    And honestly? I don’t like to wait because I don't like to feel out of control. Whether its something trite like waiting in traffic, or more serious like facing the uncertainty of a medical diagnosis, it is so hard to difficult to sit in the tension that arises when we are forced to wait.
I remember going through a myriad of testing during my husband and I’s six year stretch of infertility. Both Adam and I were poked and prodded to try to find out the cause, and while there were some findings on both sides, male infertility ended up being a significant factor. When we got the results, what was most disheartening is that the doctors basically told us that there was not a lot known about what caused the issues we faced, and that there was not a lot proven to help.

“Wait.”  That is what we felt God whisper again and again in those years. There was nothing else to do. And over and over again God graciously made me aware of my desperate longing to control, instead of surrendering to Him.

As we enter into the second week of Advent, I think of the story of Israel and the way that God formed a people for Himself. I think of the way that He did miracles among the Israelites, set them free from the bondage of slavery in Egypt, brought them to a land that He had prepared for them and gave them the law and the gift of His presence within the temple. And yet again and again, the people sought their own ways over surrendering to His, which eventually landed them into exile. And then?

400 years.

That is how long God was seemingly silent after His people went into exile.
400 years that the people of Israel were without prophetic word from their God.
400 years of waiting.

What did waiting look like for the Israelites? I read recently that it was during this period of silence that there was a renewed zeal among the people of God. Groups like the Sadducees and Pharisees rose to prominence in the Jewish communities as they sought to keep the law and covenant with God lest they be destined to exile forever.

This picture of renewed passion in a season of waiting is a beautiful one.
Often times when we think of waiting, its easy to think of doing nothing. But I wonder if that is a far cry from what God actually invites us into. Our waiting is not a passive, sitting on the sidelines, kind of waiting. The kind of waiting that we are invited into this Advent? It requires all of us.

During our years of infertility, we learned a lot about waiting thought we didn’t always do it well. We learned to wait by seeking God’s presence in the midst of pain and longing. We learned to bring our bitterness, envy, and anger to God in prayers of lament and to know His comfort in the midst of uncertainty. We learned how to follow God when He called us in a different direction than the one that we had envisioned for ourselves. This season of waiting required us to sit with our own souls, to meet with God in the midst of longing, to remember all of His faithfulness to us in the past and trust Him for the days ahead with everything we had.

In a season of waiting, our Psalmist does the same thing. He says:

4”Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.
5 Many, LORD my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of Your deeds, they would be too many to declare.”

In the midst of the darkness that the psalmist of Psalm 40 finds himself waiting in, he looks back at what God has done and he reminds himself of the blessing of putting his trust in the Lord. He reminds himself of who God is and what He has done. This isn’t easy work. This is soul-stretching stuff.

We know that God eventually breaks that 400 years of silence, and with a pretty big announcement too. God Himself is coming to dwell with His people. Immanuel is coming.
He has not forgotten Israel.  He has not forsaken them. He is on His way.

Oh my friend. I don’t know what waiting looks like for you in this season.
But can I whisper these words soft and strong?
He is coming.
You will not wait forever.
And right now? In the middle of our waiting?
We can wait with Him. Trust in Him. For He has come. Immanuel is with us. Right here and now. And in that knowing this week, we wait with Hope and Peace.


Respond

Take a few moments to be present. What thoughts and feelings do you have after today’s scripture reading and reflection? What might God be speaking to you? In what areas of your life do you feel like you are ‘waiting?’ How is God inviting You to wait on Him? Take some time to recount how God has been faithful to you in the past and how you have seen Him at work in your life and in the lives of those around you. How does this help to bring hope in the waiting?

I encourage you to take some time this week to find a quiet space and listen to my new single,“Wait.” Music has a way of stilling our thoughts and anxious hearts, and I pray that God will meet you in that space.

Pray

Thank You God that You are Immanuel - God with us. Thank You that you are there in the waiting and with us in the uncertainty. Teach us the art of not just waiting, but waiting upon You and with You. In You alone do we put our trust and our hope. Lead us this week as wait on You.