4TH WEEK OF ADVENT

You will conceive in your womb and bear a son.

It was a day probably like any other day, more than two thousand years ago, when an angel appeared to Mary and announced the coming of the Messiah. The people of God had been waiting a very long time, but now that wait was over. Mary was going to bear a son—“God with us”—and the Lord would redeem his people. God’s faithfulness had prevailed!

Stories of people waiting for God to fulfill his promises are peppered throughout the Scriptures. Abraham was promised a son, but it was years before Isaac was conceived. Similarly, the Israelites had to wait four hundred years before God freed them from slavery in Egypt and brought them back to the Promised Land. And the coming of the Messiah that we read about today took millennia! But God always came through.

Waiting is not too bad when you know how everything will turn out, but it’s not so easy when you are living in the in-between. In fact, sometimes it’s downright hard.

We can all relate to this. We may ache for the conversion of a spouse or child. We may yearn for a relationship to be healed or for God to intervene in a difficult circumstance. We know that God is good. We know that he desires our redemption and healing more than we do. But the waiting can seem so long and painful.

While we are in our own seasons of waiting, we can look to the numerous examples of God’s faithfulness throughout Scripture. Just as he was faithful to bring forth a Messiah to redeem his people, he will not forget us. He knows the deepest desires of our hearts and the needs we face every day. When we read these stories, he wants us to remember that he will be faithful and that we can trust him in our times of waiting.

Today, take some time to reflect on God’s faithfulness in your own life. Ask him to help you trust him with whatever you are facing. You can be sure that he hears your prayers and that he is walking with you through every situation, giving you strength to wait for his faithfulness to be revealed.

“Lord, thank you for your faithfulness to all generations.”

Isaiah 7:10-14
Psalm 24:1-6
Luke 1:26-38