Read: Luke 2:25-35; Psalm 130:5-6
As I write this, there are fewer than three weeks until Christmas and less than a month before we will need to write 2020 rather than 2019. As with all days and weeks in a year, some have flown by quicker than the time needed to catch a snowflake on my tongue and some have played out slowly like trying to trudge through sludge while wearing heavy boots. The circumstances that we're walking through have a great deal to do with this disparity.
If you are like me as you look back through the months of this past year, you have seen the Lord answer prayers. Thank You Lord. However, that truth is far from the whole picture. If your life mirrors my own, you're still waiting for the Lord to act in a myriad of
circumstances:
Perhaps there are loved ones who haven't yet given their lives to Jesus. Maybe they don't yet even seem to be softening toward Him.
Perhaps you still face a closed door concerning a ministry that is close to your heart. Maybe the circumstances or people who are standing in the way seem immovable.
Perhaps a health challenge that you or a loved one is dealing with remains unresolved.
Perhaps you feel invisible and lonely, even though people are all around you.
Perhaps...!
Whatever the circumstances that have continue to be unresolved, one thing is certainly true. We don't like waiting. When the voice on the phone says what my approximate waiting time will be, and then they add more minutes, I don't even like that additional wait. Fortunately, there is a vast difference between waiting for people to act on our behalf and waiting for the Lord's will to be carried out in our lives.
For one thing, God's promises can't be limited by what men consider to be barriers, Genesis 18:14. The One Who promised a child to an aged infertile couple was able to carry out His promise, Romans 4:18-22. Even so, the wait for Abraham and Sarah was long, about 25 years. During those long years, at times they went where God hadn't directed them to go. They took circumstances into their own hands, Genesis 16. Still, God was faithful to them, and He fulfilled His promise, Genesis 21:1-7. I love her words. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? No one.
In today's scripture reading from Luke 2:25-35, we read about another who waited to see God's promise fulfilled. This is the only time we encounter Simeon, and we know little about him. For a reason that only the Lord knows, Simeon was told he would live until he saw the promised Messiah/Savior. We are told that he waited eagerly for this revelation. Don't you love that word "eagerly"? He was certain, like Abraham, that God would do what He had promised. We aren't told how long Simeon waited, but we do learn about that special day. That was the day the Holy Spirit told Simeon to go to the temple. When he held the Promised One, Simeon spoke, by the power of the Holy Spirit, about the ministry Jesus would have. The waiting was over, not only for Simeon, but for a world that had languished in darkness. The Light had finally come, John 8:12.
Back to the word eagerly. Such a beautiful way Simeon waited. It reminds me of Psalm 130:5-6 where we are told that the psalmist put His hope in God's word and longed for God with the same certainty that the sentry had as he waited for the dawn. One thing the man on duty knew. No matter how long the night seemed, the dawn would come right on time. What a beautiful picture of the Lord's timing. Even when it appears that nothing is happening while we wait, "the dawn will come". God's interventions, though often not viewed by our eyes and not accomplished in our time, will not be thwarted. God's timing is as precise as the coming of the sunrise. Even the timing of Jesus' arrival was completely scripted by the Sovereign One, Galatians 4:4. When we continue to remind ourselves that God has no limitations and he is therefore able to keep every promise, it will be easier for us to wait with eagerness.
Lord, when we see the beauty of a sunrise, please remind us that Your faithfulness in our waiting times can be counted on with the same certainty that the sun will rise tomorrow.