Monday
Psalm 27.14: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
This advice comes at the end of the Psalm. It starts with “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?” And in the middle the Psalm talks about “in the day of trouble.” We all have such days, sometimes even longer spells, of trouble. Advent is about looking into the troubles that trouble us, and waiting for the Lord who is our Light. That doesn’t make troubles disappear; it is trust that right in the middle of the biggest mess, God is with us. Whom then shall I fear?
Tuesday
Isaiah 40.31: “But those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.
Both despair and hope can be exhausting. The longer we hope for something, without any sign it will happen, the harder it is to go on hoping. The word ‘wait’ can also mean hope, and the two go together when we pray. We wait in hope before God. Advent is a period of waiting hopefully, and of hoping patiently, and doing so in the strength of the Lord. Our troubled and tragic world waits for peace, justice, signs of mercy. Advent Christians wait with renewed strength before God, praying “Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Wednesday
Isaiah 30.18: “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him.”
Prayer is when we bring our longings and desires to God; it’s also when we come before a God who longs to be gracious to us. This God of compassion and justice, looks on a broken Creation, the greed and cruelty, the power games and the reckless waste of our God-given world, and does so with compassion and justice. Advent is a time to remember, to wait, reflect and ponder the truth of who God is. Immanuel, God with us. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Think about that!
Thursday
Psalm 130.6: “My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.”
That kind of waiting that has us obsessively looking at our watch, willing time to pass. But also that kind of waiting that has the heart beating in anticipation, because what is promised will happen as surely as darkness flees at the coming of dawn. That repeated line is not a misprint – it’s a poetic emphasis on the faith and trust of the heart and mind that waits, stayed on God, whose promised presence is as sure as the dawn. Advent is all about such waiting in expectant anticipation of God’s coming.
Friday
Isaiah 64.4: “Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God like you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.”
That’s an extravagant claim, and one that Isaiah repeatedly makes. The Lord God is unlike any other God, in this one thing that His people experience again and again from ancient times – God’s acts on behalf of those who wait on him in trustful hope and obedient faith. From the very beginning, from birth in nondescript Bethlehem, to Calvary and resurrection, there is no God like the God we meet in Jesus Christ. An Advent Church waits in wonder at the earth-shattering truth of the Word made flesh and living amongst us, full of grace and truth.
Saturday
Psalm 37.7: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.”
It’s always been a troubling question: Why do good people so often struggle and get a hard time, while ruthless folk with no principles seem to prosper and grab all the good things in life. But goodness isn’t indexed to prosperity, and obedience to God is its own reward. Not everything in life turns out as we hope. We await justice for the poor, freedom for the oppressed, and God’s righteousness to enables our shared life to flourish without fear. Advent is the time we train ourselves in patient hope, and in persistent prayer against the wicked schemes that threaten our planet, devastate human lives, and undermine God’s purpose of Shalom. Thy Kingdom come!
Sunday
Psalm 33.20-22 “We wait in hope for the Lord, he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.”
These verses are pure Advent! You can use them every day as an Advent prayer and you would be immersing yourself in the great Advent themes of hope, joy, trust and the waiting of those who ‘trust in his holy name.’ And that last sentence, as a final one liner prayer before surrendering to sleep, you could put it into the mouths of any of the key players in God’s Advent plan – Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah. To wait before God is to hope and to trust His holy name; to wait is to have our strength renewed, to soar like eagles, to run without ever being exhausted. “May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.”
(First image was taken by a fire fighter in Notre Dame Cathedral.)
Second image Findochty looking across the Moray Firth, and the third from Cullen beach on a late October afternoon just after it stopped raining.
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