Advent is a season of waiting, but waiting is not a discipline that we have learned to embrace. Like the children of Israel, we want what we want when we want it. God had promised Israel that the Savior would come, but the people of Israel did not know how to wait and took matters into their own hands. They devised plans, came up with devious schemes, engaged in less than noble behavior, and implemented their own proposals to get what they wanted. They looked to other “gods,” and they consistently forgot that God had a divine plan for their lives. They did not know how to wait on God.
As New Testament Christians, we aren’t any better at waiting. When we get impatient, we come up with our ways of handling the issues of life, and then we find ourselves moving outside the realm of dependency on God. Self-made life proposals indicate that we have a lack of trust and faith in God, and eventually this leads us to a place of misery and despair. All of us have attempted to answer the question, “How do I plan to get what I want?” Unfortunately, we are guilty of trying to answer that question without waiting on God. We have designed, planned, and implemented our own strategies, instead of resting in God’s presence until he chooses to reveal the master plan.
Our proposals have included dressing for success, networking with the right people, positioning ourselves to be in the right place at the right time, climbing the corporate ladder, obtaining yet another degree, moving to the best neighborhood, marrying the best catch, investing our money in stocks and bonds, and working longer and harder than anyone else. We find ourselves engaging in covert and overt behavior that is less than honest, manipulative, and devious. The tragedy of it all is that our self-made proposals actually leave us empty and still searching for answers.
The Advent season is about the manifestation of God’s proposal for us. God’s plan is good and perfect. These words are recorded in Jeremiah 29:11, “‘For I know that plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” How should we propose to get what we want? I suggest that we learn how to wait on God.