Jenny and I wait for family completion, we wait for being able to own a home, we wait for Sammy’s birthday party, and our days off, and just anything… So many of us live waiting.
Jesus told us not to worry about tomorrow, so we strive to wait in joyful anticipation of what God has in store, yet it is waiting.
We are moving into an apartment on campus and have a big home study coming up. We are super excited to get a good move on it and even more excited to have our family complete. The problem? We’re waiting. I laugh while I say this, but in all reality it does add some stress to my growing little family.
The point is we wait… A lot… it is, in fact, part of the human experience. Even Jesus waited 33 years before he started His ministry.
Hebrews 9:28 (ESV)28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Jesus appeared as man on earth to offer Himself the perfect sacrifice, afterwards He rose from the dead and appeared in heaven as our mediator with God, but soon He will appear again. No sacrifice, no lamb, but our Lord. This verse says we are to eagerly wait for Him. For a people so used to waiting, why do we struggle with this so?
I think as leaders we fail to bring the appropriate emphasis on our call to eagerly await His return. When we do, we use it as a fear motivator towards salvation. This verse says it should be eagerly awaited. Is it possible that we miss a huge positive motivation for every aspect?
The old hymns and gospel favorites talked a lot about our long desired home and the coming of our long awaited King. I think they had the right idea? What greater motivation to evangelism than knowing that Christ is coming a victorious King. We who have the light of the world should eagerly work towards earning the crown for THAT day and expanding the Kingdom. We should eagerly search His word and seek to know Him for our long awaited home coming, and we should be joyful in working out our own salvation.
Why do we not live in anticipation of the things of God? For those of us so used to waiting, it seems like a good skill to focus on.
Of course we could be much like Sammy and decide to run ahead…
Sammy has not had much experience at waiting yet…
Coming up in chapter 10 of Hebrews is one of the most compelling exhortations in the Bible regarding confidence in Christ. It is a call to persevere. Should we be surprised that a call to persevere should follow a call to eagerly wait?
Thank you again David. Once again you hit the nail on the head. And so we wait...
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