We, as a culture, seem to have really lost the art of waiting. Two-day shipping, commercial-free streaming, and drive through fast food seems to have swiftly ushered out the practice of patience in our times. Yet there is an element of God’s design for humanity that includes rhythms of waiting. The weekly Sabbath, the gestation of a baby, even breathing itself are all evidence of God’s design for quiet waiting to be an ordinary function of our lives.
The Scriptures are drenched in the language of waiting. The coming of the Messiah is just one of the many examples of God’s people waiting. We can think of the Israelites awaiting freedom in Egypt, David hiding in a cave awaiting his ascendency to the throne, the Intertestamental period, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and now the return of Christ. These are just a few of the many examples of anticipation in the Scriptures.
But today, I’d like us to consider not the fact of these rhythms of waiting, but rather the way in which we wait. I want us to think about emotions between the lines of Scripture, the unspoken evidence of the fruit of the Spirit like patience, joy, and peace.
It would be easy to consider the antithesis of these fruits as impatience, sadness, and chaos. Instead, let’s consider these anti-fruits not as the absence of something, but the presence of the wrong thing. If we don’t have patience – careful waiting, we do have the presence of busyness – the inability to sit still. If we don’t have joy – trust in God’s sovereignty, we do have anxiety – the recognition of our lack of control. If we don’t have peace – the faith in the goodness of our God, we do have depression – the doubt of God’s very personhood. This inability to sit still, the world spinning wildly out of our control, and an insistent questioning of who God is permeate our world and constantly cloud our own judgement. It is no wonder that we cannot wait well for the little things, much less the life-shaking realities for which we wait.
While our little ones are counting down for Christmas, adults always seem to be counting something far less exciting. Perhaps it is how many days until that significant bill is due, how many years until you can retire, how many miles away the grandchildren are living, how many days until the doctor’s visit, and so many other situations that all require this rhythm of waiting. The waiting is regular, boring, and often very difficult. Maybe you’re like me and tend to presume the worst about everything while you are waiting. You are attempting to anticipate the worst possible scenario and prepare for the end of the world as you know it.
Ironically enough, much of the Bible verses that contain the word “wait” are in a context of despair or horror. No one is waiting for an ice cream cone and writing about their excitement in the Scriptures. Even those who are seen waiting for Jesus in the Gospels are doing so with an angle toward trapping Him. The examples of waiting are normally with groaning, sadness, and pain. All except for two people grouped in one passage of Scripture. It’s not that their lives were not full of hardship and toil, but rather that their waiting was marked by faith and trust.
The first guy was a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem who knew his Torah. He had wrestled through the years of study, learning to read and understand the Word of God. He had a robust knowledge of the promises of God and equally a personal connection with the Holy Spirit. Some say he was quite old when he appears in the Bible, but that is irrelevant to the take-away of the story. His entire lifetime had been spent without new revelation from God. Political turmoil and religious silence could have left him wondering how the Lord would pull off this miracle of a Messiah. I wonder if at times he doubted his own understanding of God’s Word and of the personal promise he had received. He thought “maybe I misread the Torah.” Or “maybe I didn’t really hear that right.” Or “what if I’m totally wrong?” But nevertheless, he was urged by the Spirit to go to the Temple, and he obeyed. I would have had an internal struggle on the way, but Simeon was much better at waiting and obeying, trusting and quiet confidence than I am. Luke 2:25 says that Simeon “was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” His waiting was characterized by trust in God’s Word and His character demonstrated in immediate obedience and actions of faith.
The next one on the scene is a woman whose life had been full of unfulfilled expectations. She married with an expectation to live happily ever after, and her husband soon died, leaving her all alone in the world. Day in and day out, she would be reminded of her inability to provide for herself, and her great loneliness would be shown to the world. As friends were getting married and having children, then again as they were having grandchildren, she stood by without a husband to love and without children to nurture. I’m sure her prayers were loud at times, silently sobbing at others. Groans of desperation and the cries of “it’s not fair” were tempted to arise. Yet Anna waited with grace. Her actionable steps were toward the Lord and for the good of His people. The text tells us she was a devoted person who worshipped by her presence, her fasting, and her prayer. She was a productive waiter. Anna’s life changed the day that she saw the baby Jesus. It did not stop being hard, and even her waiting did not cease, yet the peace that she exhibited in her anticipation must not be missed.
What are some of the take aways that we can glean from these examples of beautiful waiting?
- Waiting is a part of life. There is no escaping the waiting. From the beginning of time, waiting for the Messiah has been characteristic for the people of God. Since Jesus’ first advent, God’s people now continue to wait for His second advent.
- We don’t just wait for big things like the second coming of Christ, so we ought to know for what we are waiting. For Simeon and Anna, it was the promised Messiah. Maybe for you, it is direction for your family or a few more years until retirement. Big or small, waiting can be focused as we know what answers to look for.
- Productive waiting is the expectation. This must include the active seeking of the Lord, not for what He can do to improve the situation or speed up time. Worship while waiting often looks like normal day to day activity, deciding to step out in the faith to do what God has called you to do. When you feel overwhelmed by the daunting realities that lie ahead, befriend the Holy Spirit.
- Where the Lord leads, follow. For Simeon and Anna that day, it was to do what they had been doing for years. They were not at a new job or in a new village. Jesus met them at their ordinary and made them the first missionaries. Even if the Lord seems to be sending you back into a season of waiting, acknowledge God’s presence and obey.
The art of waiting is a skill we only improve by practice. The Lord, in His great gentleness towards us, often allows us to be in seasons of waiting to draw us closer to Him and grow this fruit of the Spirit within us. Without the indwelling power of the Spirit, without the active obedience we decidedly exercise, without the Lord’s intervention, our waiting would be in vain. Instead, “the same Spirit that had provided for the support of [Simeon and Anna’s] hope now provided for the transport of [their] joy” (Matthew Henry commenting on Luke 2:27) as they focused on the Christ child as the object of their waiting and the lives were never the same. May our season of anticipation for Christmas (and the many other things that we wait for) be full of true patience, joy, and peace.
