I hate waiting. I don’t like waiting for dinner, I don’t like waiting in traffic, I don’t like waiting for my doctor’s appointment, and I really don’t like waiting to open Christmas presents. Ok, actually as I get older I think I get a little better about waiting, but waiting is still not something many of us prefer. We live in a society that seems built around instant gratification. We want it now, but God usually makes us wait. God’s promises typically take time. Think about the great stories in the Bible. Think about the covenants that God made. They all required waiting. Abraham had to wait. Moses had to wait. David had to wait. In the New Testament Elizabeth, Simon, and Anna all had to wait, but everyone who waited on the Lord found their faith was justified. 

In the waiting God is doing something. God is not idle nor does he play with our emotions, but instead, God uses our waiting to conform us to the image of Christ. James 1:2-4 encourages us to consider it joy when we undergo trials that make us wait, “² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Maturity comes from waiting on God and letting God do his work in us. 

Advent is a time of waiting. We set aside time in our spiritual lives and in our church calendar to focus on what it meant and means to wait on God. The Old Testament people of God believed God’s promises and waited expectantly for the Messiah to come into the world and free them from the bondage of sin. Songs like “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” lyrically and melodically remind us of the longing and expectation that preceded Christ’s coming into the world. But it also reminds us and prepares us for the Second Advent when Christ will return to earth as a reigning King and rescue us his New Testament (Covenant) people. So let us enter the Advent season with a heart to wait on God—to be patient to let him work, while waiting with confidence that we know how the story will end.