Christmas (3) The Long Wait
Friday December 27, 2013
How long are we willing to wait for God to show us the fulfillment of His plans for us? We can begin to live in the plan God has for our lives today simply by obeying Him in the ordinary things He has told us to do?
Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Joseph, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem. (Luke 2:36-38 NLT)I just got news while writing this that my nephew and his wife are the proud parents of a son who arrived five weeks early. They married a few years ago, completed some studies and ministry service overseas and then planned this pregnancy. Now after 8 months of anticipation, a very long wait for a pregnant mom, they hold their beautiful son in their arms.
What must it have been like to be Anna who for 60+ years heard about God's plan and still waited? Anna would have been in her teens when she married. Luke tells us she was widowed after only seven years of marriage which makes her a woman in her early twenties. From then until she was 84 she had followed hard after God every day, praying and fasting and worshipping God in the temple. She was a fully committed believer that God would fulfill His promise to rescue Israel. Year after year Anna waited looking forward to the fullness of God's provision, the fulfillment of God's promise. Because the right time for sending Jesus had not yet come, Anna waited and waited and while she waited she prayed and fasted and worshipped God every day and kept looking to Him in trust for the fulfillment of His promise. Anna waited more than 60 years for the right time to come and each day of those 60 years she just did the simple things she knew to do that were right and good.
Another person willing to wait for a long time for the fulfillment of a promise of God was the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”. (Jeremiah 29:10-14 NLT)
Seventy years? That's a long time. However, in God's good plan which included restoring Israel after they rejected Him time and time again, there was a period of time needed for all the pieces of the complex plan to be put in place. In the meantime, God did not desert His people and continued to fill them with hope. His expectation was that they would seek after Him and do those things that were righteous in His eyes even while they were in captivity.
We may not know how long we need to wait for the fulfillment of God's plan for our lives. What we need to understand is that God's plans are right and God's time is right. God desires us to walk with Him and serve Him today, even in the middle of difficult circumstances. To be patient and wait is not only right but is the key to the best possible life. As this year comes to an end and we move into the next, let's plan to walk wholeheartedly in what God has given us today and trust Him for the fulfillment of His plan for us, in His perfect time. ©2013 Partners in Hope
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