You are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:7).
When my family and I lived in Calgary, Alberta, we would go to Calaway Park each summer. Calaway Park is a local amusement park, just 15 minutes outside the city.
Our favorite ride was one called Timber Falls, a kind of roller-coaster-type ride where you splash into a pool of water at the end.
Each time we went, we would diligently line up to go on this ride. On days when the park was particularly busy, or if it was unusually hot, the line up for this ride would be extensive. One would be forced to stand in the blazing sun for what seemed like an eternity.
If you have ever stood in such a line, you will know that there is inevitably a moment when you start to wonder if the ride is worth the wait.
I doubt that any of us enjoy waiting. Waiting is never listed as a favorite pastime. We never search out long line-ups or rejoice over being stuck in traffic.
No, waiting is often met with frustration or irritation. In fact, a recent survey found that a waiting-induced annoyance sets in after only three and a half minutes. We simply can’t stand waiting.
Why, then, does God’s work in our lives so often include the call to wait? While the world around us moves with break-neck speed, God moves slowly. Instead of calling us to “hurry up and move!” the Lord asks us to “be still and know that he is God” (Psalm 46.10).
Psalm 37 echoes this sentiment: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him” (v.7). Our life with God is peppered with seasons of waiting and times of slow abiding. Enduring such seasons is important for our spiritual growth.
Yet if waiting often produces irritation in our lives, how might we walk through our season of waiting with faithful resolve? Below are three promises of God that we can hold on to in our times of waiting.
1. We Are Not Alone
Whether we wait for Christmas, for Christ’s Second Coming, or for simply a revelation of Christ’s power in our lives, waiting can feel isolating and lonely.
We may easily surmise that we are the only person who undergoes such circumstances. And when this is the case, it is very easy for us to abandon our waiting.
Think of the example above. If I was left by myself, standing in the hot sun, enduring a line-up that never moved as quickly as I would have liked, I would probably abandon the waiting.
I would move on to other rides or maybe give up the amusement park altogether. “I have better places to go and more important things to do!”
I would tell myself. But I never did. Why? Because I was always with someone else, namely my son. His enthusiasm spurred me on. His excitement about what was ahead kept me in that line, and together, we enjoyed the ride that awaited us.
Spiritually, there are times in waiting when we may feel that we hit the end of our capacity to wait. When this occurs, we may feel the temptation to simply abandon our faith altogether. Yet God’s promise to us is that we never wait alone in our waiting.
We are surrounded by the Christian community. Christian brothers and sisters, join us in our season of waiting. Paul writes, “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). The faithful presence of the community helps us remain steadfast.
Are you in a season of waiting? Is there a healing that you are longing for? Is there a grand work of redemption that you would like to see take place? As we draw closer to the celebration of Christmas, maybe your waiting is about renewing your wonder at Nativity.
Whatever your season of waiting looks like, ask yourself what it might look like to invite the community to wait with you. Seasons of waiting are but a time to rest upon the faith of the Christian community and to be supported by it.
2. We Do Not Lack Spiritual Gifts
I don’t know about you, but I cannot do everything myself. As competent as I am, there are many areas where I need people to help me and support me. I need doctors and lawyers, plumbers, and electricians. I need people with skills that I do not have to do what I simply cannot do.
The same principle applies to our spiritual lives. This is one of the reasons why the presence of the community is so important in our season of waiting. The community of faith is filled with spiritual gifts.
Paul writes, “You are not lacking any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:7). Importantly, this verse does not speak to individual spiritual gifts, but the gifts present in the community.
When Paul writes the word “you,” he is not writing it in the singular but in the plural. He is speaking about the spiritual gifting of the entire community, not just one solitary individual. Biblically speaking, spiritual gifts are manifested within and for the life of the community.
The spiritual gifts needed to navigate our season of waiting are present within the community of faith.
This is God’s promise to us. When we feel discouraged, the community offers people who can remind us of the hopeful promises of Jesus; when we are impatient, the community stands with us in patient witness, holding us in place; when we feel so alone that we feel unable to offer the simplest prayer, the community rallies around us and prays with us and for us.
The community of faith has every resource and gift it needs to encourage us in our season of waiting.
The community of faith, walking with us in our waiting, is not just a band of idle spectators. God’s promise to us is not just about the company of others but about the spiritual enrichment of that community.
The community of faith consists of men and women who have been spiritually empowered to minister to us in the most direct and applicable way.
3. The Spirit Is with Us
More than anything else, God promises that the Holy Spirit is with us in the season of waiting. Not only do we wait in the company of others, but we also wait in the company of God.
This truth, more than anything else, is what gives us hope, patience, and endurance. God is faithful to us and does not leave us abandoned. The Spirit strengthens us for the very time we are in and the very journey we take.
God is faithful to us, and God’s spirit is alive within us. Of course, the Spirit’s presence doesn’t mean that the season of waiting won’t feel long or difficult. There are times when we may feel lost or alone.
But as Paul reminds us “The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).
Thus, we can wait in eagerness and hopeful anticipation because we trust that even if we don’t see the Spirit moving, we can trust that the Spirit is active.
Seasons of waiting, as difficult as they may be at times, are important for our spiritual lives; they remove us from what is normal or routine.
Seasons of waiting teach us to rely on Christ’s presence by driving us to God’s promises. Grasping the promise of community, the promise of spiritual gifts, and the promise of the Holy Spirit within us means that we have all we need to wait in eagerness and in hope.
For further reading:
Why Is Waiting on God So Hard?
Why Was the Promised Messiah a Time of Waiting?
How Do I Know When God Is Calling Me to Wait?
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/BartekSzewczyk
