Category Archives: 2015-12

Pastor’s Pen for December, 2015

““14As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.  15My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long – though I know not how to relate them all.” (Psalm 71 NIV)

As we come into the Advent season, we enter a season of hope.  Just as a pregnant couple wait for their baby and hope for its future, we wait and hope as well.  We don’t really wait for the arrival of a baby; He was born more than 2000 years ago.  We hope for our future in Him.  Waiting is difficult; I don’t think that I have ever met anyone who enjoys waiting.  We have such busy lives that waiting seems to be a waste of time.  Waiting in traffic, waiting in line at the grocery store, waiting for an appointment, waiting for the kids to come home, waiting for a diagnosis, waiting for dinner to be ready – we do a lot of waiting.

Sometimes when we are waiting we are so focused on our dislike of waiting that we miss opportunities.  When waiting in a line we can look around and see the many faces of Jesus around us.  When we are waiting in traffic, we can take time to focus on thankfulness by creating a gratitude list.  When waiting for a diagnosis, we can focus on prayer and the Will of God and know that He will be with us no matter what the outcome.

The great thing about Advent is that it gives us a reason to slow down and focus on the hope of our faith.  God makes so many promises to us and we know that He will make good on them.  That is what hope is.  Hope is not a wish, hope is the light at the end of the tunnel that keeps us moving forward even when we feel frustrated or downtrodden.  As long as we have the promises of God, the promise of the Spirit within us, we have hope.  We hope for a time when Jesus will reclaim us all and we will live as one with Him.

Sometimes, as the Psalmist wrote, we don’t know how to express the hope that we have. How can we demonstrate that we have hope while we wait?  By following the two greatest commands: 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12, NIV).  If we use our times of waiting to find ways to follow these commands, our hope will be evident and our waiting will realize that hope.

May God shower you with blessings as you wait and hope in this Advent season.

— Sunnie