Waiting well
Grace and peace to you from Him who is, and Who was, and Who is to come. –Revelation 1:4b (NIV)
God’s people have a long history of waiting. They’ve waited for different things in different eras. With promise in hand, they scanned the horizon watching for deliverance, redemption, restoration, and salvation. How did they do it? What makes a good waiter?
For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for Him! –Isaiah 64:4 (NLT)
When my second son was small, he was always eagerly anticipating the next thing, whatever the next thing was. He “just couldn’t wait for….” Fill in the blank: School to start. School to end. Independence Day. Birthday. Halloween. Christmas. Ball season. Next week's game. Carried along with hope for what that next thing might hold, he looked forward with expectancy. He wasn’t impatient or anxious, just ready.
His hopes were not baseless. He lived in a home where he was loved and cared for, where his parents loved one another and taught him many valuable life lessons. That isn’t to say life was perfect, or that things always went his way. But enough did that he was mostly optimistic and knew how to make the best of it when things went pear-shaped, as they sometimes will.
It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, that He might save us. This is YHWH; we have waited for Him; let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” –Isaiah 25:9 (ESV)
I believe we can wait well when we have hope. Not hope that consists of wishful thinking, but hope that includes a confident expectation based on evidence. Waiting is not passive when backed by that kind of hope. It moves in the direction of being ready to receive the blessing when it arrives, whether the wait is short or long.
In fact, Scripture tells us of many of God’s people who died while waiting for their promise to come. Did they miss it? Not at all! Rather, they laid a foundation for future generations, knowing that not only would the promise one day be fulfilled, but that when it was, they themselves would be participants in it.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. –Hebrews 11:39-40 (NIV)
God's people waited in hopeful expectation for the coming Messiah because they had seen the Promise-Maker be true to His word too many times to consider the possibility that He might fail. They knew Him to be a Promise-Keeper. We have a promise of our own from that same Promise-Maker. May we follow the examples of the many who have gone ahead of us as we learn to wait well.
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. –James 5:7-8 (ESV)