Issue link: http://denverseminary.uberflip.com/i/420759
December 28 Psalm 6:3b–4 23 Stacey Brogan, MA Alumna & Resident Director at Moody Bible Institute W e all wait. As children, we wait eagerly for Christmas and birthdays, for field trips and family vacations. As we grow up, our longings become stronger, our waiting more desperate. We wait for love, for healing, for hope, for release, for safety, for justice. Often we wait with only slight hope that our needs will be fulfilled. At other times, we have the promise that this fulfillment will come—though this may not take away the strain of our waiting. Advent is a season of waiting. God's people waited, and waited, and waited for the promised Messiah. Many centuries went by before God fulfilled His promise through the Incarnation of His Son. ese were years of distress for God's people, years in which their anticipation must have become desperate, hopeless, and forgotten. During Advent we remember our own needs and longings as we remember how the people of God waited in years past. We too strain toward the Messiah as our only hope—waiting and hoping for His response. We too acknowledge and cling to God's promises and own our unfulfilled longings and needs. We join the ancient people of Israel to ask God again and again, "How long, LORD?" "How long, LORD, how long? Turn, O LORD, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love" (Psalm 6:3b–4). How long, LORD, how long until You bring justice to the oppressed? Until You bring healing to those who have been abused? Until You bring comfort to those who have endured loss? Until You bring restoration to those with chronic pain and illness? Until You reveal Your presence to those who walk in Your silence? Until You bring release from those bonds which hold people captive of body and mind? Until You draw to Yourself the hearts of those who wander from the life You offer? We wait. And we wait. And we wait. Trusting in Your promises, in Your salvation, in Your unfailing love. Just as Christ, the Messiah, came after what felt like a too-long wait, we trust that You will come for us. In this season, we own our longings, our need for You, and we lean into the waiting and into You. Waiting on God