What Are You Waiting For?

For many people, this is the time of year for celebrations, overflowing with joy, peace, thankfulness, and hope for the future.

For others, any festivities are punctuated by loss, sadness, strife, or hopelessness. Gifts of joy, peace, thankfulness and hope seem almost unattainable. It can be hard to celebrate when you are waiting…waiting to feel better, waiting for relationships to be healed, waiting for the next paycheck, waiting for a judge to render a decision, waiting for permanent housing, waiting for a reason to celebrate…

This week, I was struck by the similarities between two familiar stories from long ago. First, from Genesis 18, Abraham and Sarah had waited almost a century to become parents. (Admittedly, when I have to wait for something for a few months or years, I feel like I have waited an eternity!) The other story is found in Job, where we read about a godly man with incredible wealth and good fortune, who had it all taken away in a short amount of time. By the end of the book, he is waiting, either for the dire situation to get even worse with one more piece of bad news, or for something positive to finally come his way.

What did these people do while they waited? They trusted God for who He is, claiming His promises, even though humanly speaking, they did not have reason to celebrate.

Check out the similarities between these two verses:
-       Genesis 18:14…After restating His promise that He will provide more descendants for Abraham than grains of sand on the seashore, God says, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
-       Job 42:2…After God reminds Job of His amazing involvement in every detail of life on earth, Job responds, ”I know that You can do anything, and no one can stop you.”

Although they may not have been able to see it at the time, both Abraham and Job had reason to celebrate God’s incredible mercy, love, and provision. Soon after acknowledging that nothing is too hard for the Lord, Abraham and Sarah became parents to Isaac, born to them in their old age, and Job had his fortune restored to him; in fact, God gave him twice what he had before.

Regardless of our circumstances, we all have reason to celebrate, even though we may still be waiting for something. We do not have to wait to choose joy, peace, thankfulness and hope.

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13 (NLT)
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Go ahead—what are you waiting for?
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