Advent Teaches Us To Wait

✝️*Text: Tit. 2: 13-14*

Advent is a season that is all about waiting.

It brings back the way God’s people in the Old Testament waited through much tribulation for the Messiah, and how we today are waiting for His return.

Advent means “coming.” The two comings of Jesus that the Church anchors herself in during this season are Christ’s Incarnation and his second coming.

When we beseech Emmanuel to come, we are not just reliving the ancient Israelites’ longing for the awaited Messiah. We are also awaiting his victorious return and renewing of the universe.

The Scriptures connect waiting to hope and our text is a good example of this.

The Apostle Paul describes how we are “ _*waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”*_ (Titus 2:13).

So in Advent we are reminded of our hope in Christ Jesus.

Apostle Paul in Col. 1: 27 describes this hope as the hope of glory. That is, the hope that having received the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, provided we remain in Him to the very end we can look forward to reigning with Him and the Father in glory.

A glorious entrance into eternity with God awaits all who are in Christ Jesus, this is our hope as followers of Christ, it is a living hope and the second coming of Christ is aimed at making this hope a reality.

The same Apostle Paul in Rom. 8: 18-25, speaks of waiting and hoping and their accompanying virtue of patience in the context of earthly suffering and life in a fallen creation, which includes realities such as viral infections and deadly plagues such as COVID 19.

Our waiting time on earth here will be filled with challenges of various magnitude, some of these challenges may have some level of pain or discomfort associated with it and the tendency will be for us to become impatient in waiting and we will even be tempted to lose hope, but whatever we do, we must refuse to lose hope, we must stay in hope regardless of the suffering or hardship we go through. Because this hope is the anchor for our souls (Heb. 6: 19).

To lose it therefore is to be disconnected from Christ, and to that I say “God forbid"!

It is another advent season and once again we are reminded of the need to wait for the realization of our hope, this year’s advent is coming at a time when the world is still counting its loses both in human lives and material resources due to the COVID 19 pandemic.

We must however not allow anything – not COVID 19 or anything else that awaits us in the coming years to kill this hope, because this hope is our ticket to heaven.

Shalom!!

🛐Prayer Points

🎯Thank you Jesus, for giving yourself up for me, that I might be redeemed from dead works and separated unto you

🎯Thank you Lord for the living hope that I have in you that one day I will be privileged to reign with you in glory.

🎯Lord as I await your return help me to remain ever watchful and ready so that your return will not catch me unawares.

🎯Father, though my waiting time on earth here will be filled with challenges of various magnitude, some of which may have some level of pain or discomfort associated with it, help me Lord never to lose hope in you in Jesus name.

🎯Father in all my challenges or whatever storm I may encounter in this life, help me Lord to stay connected to you in Jesus name.

Thanks for reading.. See you in my next article.. bye for now...