Lord, I’m constantly waiting as I suffer. Thing is…do I trust Your timing?
Your people were waiting. The last words they’d heard from You in Malachi had been 400 years before, roughly twenty generations. They doubted Your love, couldn’t see their own sin, wondered why You weren’t intervening in injustices, and half-heartedly worshiped You as routine.
They had wearied You “by saying, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them’” (Mal. 2:17 ESV). Yet, they had “corrupted the covenant” (Mal. 2:8 ESV).
Even though they’d broken the old covenant with You, they were still waiting for their idea of blessings, for Messiah to come and simply take away their problems.
But Malachi gives us Your words for the wait. Into the dark waiting silence, You gloriously left Your sinful people with Your grace-filled and sure promise.
For I the LORD do not change (Mal. 3:6 ESV).
I have loved you (Mal. 1:2 ESV).
The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts (Mal. 3:1 ESV).
Your timing of the first Christmas, promise fulfilled!
Christ, by highest heav’n adored,
Christ, the everlasting Lord!
(“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” Wesley, C., 1739)
He will be great and called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end (Lk. 1:32-33 ESV).
Late in time behold him come,
offspring of the Virgin’s womb.
After 400 years, it must have felt so “late in time.” And yet, it was Your perfect timing.
We can trust Your perfect timing today by remembering Your grander love story.
Father, now You’re redeeming Your people under a new covenant, a new promised love relationship with You as Your children. It’s happening today! We live in Your perfect timing of a promise fulfilled, a time of redemption!
My waiting somehow fits into Your perfectly timed, grander story.
Thank You, Father.
[Jesus Christ] is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance (Heb. 9:15 ESV, emphasis added).
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new-born King!”
Help me to remember who Jesus is this Christmas and worship You as I wait
[Jesus says,] “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:13 ESV).
[Jesus says,] “I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10:30 ESV).
He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory (1 Tim. 3:16 ESV).
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:1-3 ESV).
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail th’incarnate Deity!
Help me to trust Your timing as I suffer this Christmas
The heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance (2 Pet. 3:7-9 ESV).
They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him (Mal. 3:17 ESV).
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thess. 4:17-18 ESV).
Lord, You are with me as I wait, doing redemptive work in my heart. You’re preparing me to see you, as I wait! So help me to trust Your perfect timing this Christmas. As I celebrate Your first advent, help me to look and wait for Your second advent, as You give me hope in this waiting. Could this hope in Christ maybe help another who’s also hurting and waiting? Glory to You, oh Lord and Redeemer! In the great name of Emmanuel, my on-time and promised Savior Jesus Christ, amen!
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (Is. 7:14 ESV).
pleased as man with men to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new-born King!”
Resources as we wait for Jesus, trusting God’s timing, in our suffering this Christmas
Suffering includes continual waiting while trusting God’s timing. So, this week’s playlist gift is filled with Christmas carols, hymns, and songs that help us wait by looking forward. We’re singing to our Emmanuel! He’s with us to help us trust and wait. We sing praise to Him with awe that He’s placed us into this grander love story throughout history, even in the hard waiting it includes. I pray that these gospel-centered resources of “Singing Christ’s Hope” will become His gifts to you or a loved one who is suffering this year.
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Devotional Bible study prayer journals, available here. Click picture to read description.
