Friday, December 26th

Back to our previous conversation, Jesus comes in our waiting. That waiting can be a gift when we become aware of what we ARE waiting for? Who are you BECOMING in the waiting? What SUSTAINS us in the waiting?

Today we are going to look at who we are becoming in the waiting.

As you wait, is it growing you or depleting you? Who are you becoming in the waiting? More control, more pride, more worry, more anxiety? Which each of those will deplete you and those around you.

Or can you grow in humility and trust God’s wisdom and power? I appreciate this quote from Simone Weil, “Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life.”
It’s the foundation because it needs to be about humility, about trust, about saying that “even though I don’t understand what God is doing, or how he is working or even in the midst of my desire to control, less of me and more of you God.” That God, “I am going to pray specifically for what I desire in my waiting. But even if you don’t answer the prayer that I want, I WILL TRUST IN YOU.”

Take a moment with the honesty of,
Psalm 130. 1 Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; 2 Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy. 3 If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, so that we can, with reverence, serve you. 5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. 6 I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. 7 Israel, put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. 8 He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.

The honesty of this passage, crying out, it isn’t a sterile trust or “blind” hope or passive waiting. There is crying out, pleading, naming. But there is trust in his word, in his love, in his redeeming of all things.

Humility can also be an expression of confession. “God, I’m sorry I don’t trust you, I’m sorry that I go about things in my ways, I’m sorry that I want my outcomes, more than your presence.”

Sitting with this passage, applying this passage, in the midst of your waiting, will transform you, you will become more like Christ, in the waiting.