From week 1 of   Devotions for Advent

 Waiting doesn’t resonate well in our culture.  Our spending habits serve as one good example. Because we need it  now,  we rack up outlandish debts we may have no plan for repaying.

The Christian life is—and always has been—  filled with waiting  .

Whether it was the Old Testament anticipation of the promised Messiah or the New Testament  eager expectation for Jesus Christ’s return  , believers are often focused on what is to come.

It seems that God teaches us the most poignant lessons when we pay attention to the ways in which  his Kingdom is upside down  from ours. Perhaps God wants us to feel strongly dissatisfied with the imperfections of our current state and long for what is to come.  Could it be that in those moments of yearning we grow to better understand the ways of our Lord? 

 Suggested Reading: 

Psalm 25

Isaiah 2:1-5

Isaiah 11:1-16

Matthew 24:32-51

1 Corinthians 1:4-9

“  Advent  . . . helps us to  understand the fullness  of the value and meaning o  f the mystery of Christmas  . It is not just about commemorating the historical event, which occurred some 2,000 years ago in a little village of Judea. Instead, we must  understand that our whole life should be an ‘advent’  , in vigilant expectation of Christ’s final coming. To  prepare our hearts to welcome the Lord  who, as we say in the Creed, will come one day to judge the living and the dead, we must learn to recognize his presence in the events of daily life.  Advent is then a period of intense training  that directs us decisively to the One who has already come, who will come and who continuously comes.”
~Pope John Paul II (Poland/1920–2005)

 Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
~1 Corinthians 1:7

Download the first full week of  Devotions of Advent   HERE  .