Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Hey, everybody. Welcome into week one of this special edition of this podcast.
[00:00:06] We're talking about hope and waiting is week one of the Advent season.
[00:00:11] So what our hope is through the course of all of these episodes is that you would take a little bit of time to quiet your heart and mind in stillness before God and consider not just what the season means. I think we can get caught up in a lot of different feelings and themes, but more specifically, what is God doing and speaking into our lives right now in this time?
[00:00:34] So let's start with this scripture. Isaiah, chapter 40 and verse 31 says, those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength.
[00:00:43] They will mount up with wings like eagles, and they will run and not be weary, and they will walk and not faint.
[00:00:52] Advent is a season of waiting.
[00:00:54] And for hundreds of years, the ancient Israelites waited for the Messiah, the one who would rescue them from their oppressors and establish God's kingly rule. And when the prophet Isaiah wrote, those who wait upon the Lord renew their strength, he was writing to encourage the faithful to remain strong in the face of impending Assyrian conquest.
[00:01:15] So how do we remain faithful when it feels like people and the places we love are under attack or slipping away?
[00:01:21] Then how can we wait with hope and expectation when it sometimes feels like the world is against us?
[00:01:28] Now, waiting, especially in our current context today, is one of the most difficult things that we do.
[00:01:35] We actually shy away from it at every moment's notice. Have you noticed that when you stand in line at a coffee shop and you have to wait behind those five, six people, you immediately grab your phone? It's almost like our brains can't quite process having to wait and not take part in something at every single moment.
[00:01:55] We need to not necessarily lash out, but we got to make decisions. We got to play games. We got to read news articles.
[00:02:02] Waiting isn't really a part of who we are anymore because it doesn't have to be.
[00:02:07] And so I wonder what our souls are losing a little bit in not having that process be a part of who we are anymore. I wonder what we're missing out on as far as developing and becoming a disciple of Jesus by not having to actually stop and consider what waiting is.
[00:02:24] Because while we don't have to do it in every single little moment of everyday life, we are still called to do it. As followers of Jesus, we're waiting on the return of the coming king.
[00:02:36] So life is full of these moments, whether we see them or not.
[00:02:41] And that means that life is full of opportunities, not just to wait, but to hope the Israelites finally experienced this hope fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ and after waiting in deep expectation for hundreds of years for us today, the Holy Spirit comes alongside and allows us to experience the presence of God right here and now in the jumble of our lives.
[00:03:04] As we invite the transforming work of the Spirit into our dreams and plans and worries, we can find peace and even hope in our waiting. So my challenge to you, after you leave this podcast and you start your day, or maybe you get ready to prepare for the day tomorrow, consider all of these small ways that you have to wait and use them as opportunities to hope.
[00:03:29] So fill in this blank for me.
[00:03:31] Lord. This week I am waiting for blank.
[00:03:36] Help me wait with hope, strength, and expectation.
