Christmas is a beautiful time of year, with stunning decorations, picturesque family photos, and gifts wrapped just right. But underneath it all, there can be pain that surfaces. Maybe the loss of a loved one who is no longer at the Christmas table. Or a diagnosis that’s left you with more questions than answers. Perhaps it’s years of unresolved hurt that seem to sting a little more this time of year.
We feel the pain of still waiting, of still expecting some resolution to our suffering. Yes, the wait for the promised Savior ended at Christmas, but we find ourselves in a second season of waiting. We’re waiting for Jesus to return and put everything back as it should be. In this broken world where everything’s not the way it’s supposed to be, we are still waiting for the coming of Christ.
So what do we do in the middle of it? We fix our eyes on Jesus and we wait. The good news is that waiting for Jesus is never passive and we stand to gain three benefits of waiting on Him.
Trusting God in the waiting…
1) Develops character, which produces faithfulness in our lives.
In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. — 1 Peter 1:6-7 (NIV)
The problem with what Peter is telling us is that 35 years isn’t “a little while.” 40 years isn’t “a little while.” Even 17 months isn’t “a little while.” No, waiting and persevering never feels like “a little while.” The only way to see trials and waiting as short-term is to view them in light of God’s plan for our lives.
God’s primary objective is not to make our lives easier. He’s primarily interested in making our lives matter. That’s not to say that He isn’t interested in making our lives easier. He does work miraculously. He does heal the sick. He does provide financial miracles for us. He does put families back together. He does open doors that have been closed. He does make a way in the wilderness for us. He does come through all the time. But His primary objective when we wake up in the morning isn’t to ask, “How can I make your day easier today?” Instead, He speaks over us saying, “Let’s make your life meaningful today.”
The tragedy of life is not having a hard life. The tragedy of life is having a meaningless life. While we often wake up and say, “Okay, God, here are the seven ways you can make my life easier today,” our prayer must shift to something more like, “God, it’s true that I would like things to be easier, but really I want my life to count. I want my life to matter. I want my heart to mature. I want to become the person that you always dreamed I would be.” When we align our perspective with His, waiting begins to feel shorter.
…Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. — James 1:3-4 (NIV)
The goal of our lives isn’t to get all of our tension resolved. The greatest goal in life is to get our hearts shaped into the likeness of Christ. One day we are going to meet Him face to face. And when we do, we don’t want to admit that we took the easy road out. For me, I want to look back and know that I walked into the fire knowing that God would use it to shape me into who He wanted me to be, because my faith is what matters at the end of the day. When you follow Jesus through the fire, you get a proven character that results in faithfulness in your heart.
2) Builds true confidence in the supreme provision of God.
The trial you are experiencing isn’t for you to prove that you’re enough. The trial is for God to prove that He’s enough. God leads us into the desert so that He can prove who He is. That way, we can come out on the other side of it saying, “I’ll tell you one thing. I have confidence in the supreme provision of God for my life.”
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. — 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 (NIV)
Paul powerfully proclaims that even while he and the Corinthians were being persecuted, Emmanuel was with them. God was with them the whole time. Still, I’m confident that we can relate to Paul when he says, “We’ve been struck down, but we’re not destroyed.” In the waiting, we’ve all been knocked down a few times. Sometimes we don’t want to admit it and force out spiritual platitudes while we’re waiting. But it’s okay to be real when you’re living in the tension of the not-yet. We don’t have to try to put on some façade that we think is going to impress people and even God. Paul didn’t understand the trials, and he confessed, “We’re perplexed!” And I think we can be real in the waiting too.
Admitting our weakness and lack of understanding is not failure. Failure is saying, “I’m weak” and putting a period at the end of the sentence instead of saying, “I’m weak, so God, I’m choosing to believe again that You’re going to come through in some miraculous way. I’m perplexed, but I’m not going to question Your character because I know that Your ways are higher than my ways and Your thoughts are higher than my thoughts.”
I believe God loves that kind of honesty because it shows real faith. It’s in those moments where our confidence in the supreme provision of God is found.
3) Cultivates costly worship to lay at the feet of Jesus.
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. — James 1:12 (NIV)
One day we’re going to see Jesus. And when that day comes, what are you going to give Him when you see Him? I think we can take a cue from the magi who came bearing gifts as they approached the King of the universe.
God revealed to the magi that a Savior had been born. They watched stars for a living and the heavens eventually told them of the glory of God. And the stars led them to Jesus. When they came in and saw Jesus, immediately the magi bowed down and worshiped Him. They put their gifts at His feet. They brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Those are not things you pick up at the cash register on the way out with that last-minute gift anxiety you have. They brought real, valuable gifts, and they offered them to Jesus.
You don’t come empty-handed when you come to the King of Kings. So, what are you going to give Him? Maybe you’re thinking that it’s a long way off, but we need to think this through.
When you arrive, Jesus is going to give you a gift and it’s not going to be based on your amazing talents or how hard you tried to be perfect. It’s going to be based on your faithfulness to trust Him in your life as the sufficient loving God. Based on that, He is going to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And He’s going to give you a crown. James calls it the crown of life. Imagine that: Jesus is going to hand you a crown and then what? Is heaven just us walking around with our crowns on?
At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits[a] of God. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.
In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back….
Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
— Revelation 4:2 -6, 9-11 (NIV)
Jesus is on the throne and surrounding that throne are the thrones of the 24 elders and the living creatures. The elders have crowns that they have been given, and they fall down and cast their crowns down before the throne of God.
When you get to heaven, and Jesus hands you your crown, there is only one response. “This is not my crown, because I would have never breathed my first breath without You. All that I have and all that I am is because of You.” The crown is all you have in the moment, and the only response is to lay it down at His feet.
Holy Spirit of God, please open our eyes to remember this in the midst of trials and waiting. Produce in us faithfulness that results in the crown of life that we can lay at the feet of Jesus. Nobody seeks trials, but in the trials, fire refines our faith. And our faith is worth more than gold so that when we arrive at the feet of Jesus, we will have something to lay down that’s significant.
Go on an Advent journey of hope with Louie Giglio in his 4-week video Bible Study, Waiting Here for You. Watch Session 1 free below:
Louie Giglio is pastor of Passion City Church and the original visionary of the Passion movement, which exists to call a generation to leverage their lives for the fame of Jesus. Since 1997, Passion Conferences has gathered college-aged young people in events across the United States and around the world. Louie is the national-bestselling author of over a dozen books, including his newest release, At the Table with Jesus, as well as Don’t Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table, Goliath Must Fall, Indescribable: 100 Devotions About God and Science, The Comeback, The Air I Breathe, I Am Not but I Know I Am, and others. An Atlanta native and graduate of Georgia State University, Louie has done postgraduate work at Baylor University and holds a master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Louie and his wife, Shelley, make their home in Atlanta.
