advent day 9 – waiting and waiting

We wait just like God’s people before us. We wait, wanting and anticipating the day. We wait, looking and hoping and longing for his coming.

 

Sometimes God is silent. Times when we need to look back; need to remember the words already said. For whatever reason, in these times God gives no new words. So we need to remember the promises given, the hope guaranteed. Because sometimes God is silent, just as he was for hundreds of years after giving Malachi words.

 

Silent. The people left wondering and waiting.

 

And so we wait. Looking forward and wanting the day to be now. Wanting Jesus to be here. We wait to celebrate that he has come and in the meantime are reminded that again we wait for his coming; the final and restoring arrival. We celebrate and we wait still.

 

As we wait for to worship the gift of his coming so many years ago, may we have hearts stirred by those who waited in years of silence, wondering when the blessed Messiah would come. And may we learn from them, learn to wait well for his return even as we revel in his first arrival.

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Day Nine Reading: Malachi 4:1-6

 

These are the final words God speaks before 400 years of silence. When God speaks again he speaks of the birth of Jesus. He speaks of the Sun of Righteousness coming with healing in his wings. How have you experienced Jesus’ healing in your own life?

 

Consider the differences in your own life between when God is speaking and acting and when it feels that he is silent. Do you believe differently in these times?

 

Prayer—Father, you have shown yourself to be true, that when you say you are coming, you indeed are coming. Help us to remember that when it feels that you have fallen silent. Help us to believe and trust in you.

 

hearing the truth

Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.    Luke 4:14-15

 

There are these brief and interesting moments in the life of Jesus where he enjoys wide acceptance and public opinion is definitely in favor of him. It doesn’t last long, but it definitely happens at times. As I read these words from Luke 4 I was struck by the words, “…[he] was praised by everyone.”

 

The reason this stood out to me is because I have read these words before…and the words that follow. This portion of Luke 4 is where Jesus reveals his ministry and intent. This is the place where he reads from Isaiah and proclaims himself as God’ anointed one. And then, in his explaining of himself and his coming, we find the people’s opinions and perspective changing—drastically.

 

The passage ends in a very different place from where it began:

 

When they heard this, the people in the synagogue were furious. Jumping up, they mobbed him and forced him to the edge of the hill on which the town was built. They intended to push him over the cliff…       Luke 4:28-29

 

Jesus was proclaiming the truth, teaching them more about God than they had ever understood before—and they weren’t open to it. Their hearts weren’t receptive. They didn’t want the truth, they wanted what they already knew; what they liked and felt comfortable with.

 

Two things cross my mind when reading this. First, human approval is fleeting and tenuous at best. We should never get too caught up in seeking it or desiring it. It just won’t last. It’s so easy to subtly find ourselves bending a little—compromising here and there—for the sole purpose of people’s opinion about us. This is dangerous ground to tread on and we should ever be praying that our ego’s desire to be fed would never trample over our intention to be faithful to God’s calling on us.

 

The second thing I am thinking is more of a question. A question I ask myself and maybe you are willing to ask as well.

 

Am I really open to God’s truth? Or do I prefer to stick with what I’ve already decided is true?

 

I am not implying that somehow God is going to show us “truth” that differs from what the Bible says, or that we might be the one he gives some new knowledge to. Not at all. I’m thinking in the context of Luke 4. The truth about Jesus was there—in the Bible—and they just didn’t get it. They thought they knew it, thought they understood it. But when God chose to reveal it—when Jesus showed it to them and explain it to them—it turned out that they just weren’t looking for it. They didn’t want it.  

 

They were not open to God correcting their faulty thinking or misconceptions about him. When he did they got angry and rejected him. Is that how I am?

 

On one level, I know that’s how I am. I’ve been there before; been confronted by my misconceptions about God and been challenged by him to revise my thinking. It can be frightening and in defense of that fear we can get angry. But I know at times I’ve also accepted that I was wrong. That God was more than I thought him to be. I had sold him short and needed to re-learn things about him.

 

I want to be sure that’s still me; that I’m still open. Still willing to learn from God. I want to be in process; on the journey. I don’t want to get so comfortable in my understanding that I stop learning; stop listening.

 

I’m thinking that I need to trade in the value I keep putting on being right for something that holds real value: understanding God rightly. Being right doesn’t do me any good. It doesn’t make me more valuable. It doesn’t make me better in God’s eyes. Understanding God rightly, however, holds a ton of value. It’s where the real treasure lies. And it’s not about me, it’s about God. He’s the one doing the teaching, the revealing, the correcting. And I need to be humble enough to accept it, to embrace it. Even when learning something about God starts with acknowledging that I may have misunderstood it; may have been wrong.

 

Knowing God should be my goal. Not being right about him—knowing him.

 

I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!      Philippians 3:10-11

  

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. John 16:13

 

spirit

See, I am sending an angel before you to protect you on your journey and lead you safely to the place I have prepared for you. Pay close attention to him, and obey his instructions. Do not rebel against him, for he is my representative, and he will not forgive your rebellion.      Exodus 23:20-21

 

An angel to protect and lead on the journey. An angel to give instruction. What I find a bit confusing about this is why the angel does not play a more prominent role going forward from this point. What happens to this angel when the Israelites decide to make the golden calf? Or when they begin grumbling again? I just wonder if they ignored it so much that for all intents and purposes the angel just went away. Or is it that he is there, always instructing, and they just don’t listen? I don’t know, but I don’t think we hear much more from this angel after this point. I didn’t actually read ahead here, so I am going from memory, but it seems like an angel leading the way would be something I would remember if it were more prominent than this single mention.

 

When I read about the angel this morning the very first thing that came to my mind was how we have also been given someone for the journey. Someone to lead and instruct. Someone to protect and advise. We have been given the Spirit.

 

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.                     John 14:16-17

 

The problem is that much like the angel given the Israelites we can find ourselves without an ear for this guide. We can find ourselves forgetting to give him a place of prominence.

 

This is my problem. I forget to listen, forget to look, forget to be led.

 

I forget on most days to stand still long enough and allow the Spirit to whisper within and give guidance. I forget to allow my heart the time to be set at peace or stirred to action. I forget to pay close attention.

 

The older I get, the longer I live life the more I am convinced that this is the secret of the Spirit-filled life. Once we accept Christ as the Son and Savior we are all given the same Spirit—God’s Spirit. So why is it that some seem so much more in step; so much more in tune with the workings of this Spirit? Could it simply be that they are paying closer attention? That they are listening more intently and intentionally?

 

I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.         John 14:25-26

 

He will teach you everything. And he will remind you…of everything. This is what I choose to do today. I choose to pay attention so that I might be taught, so that I might be reminded.

 

If God has everything to teach and remind me, I wonder where he’ll start today?

 

if you will listen

It was there at Marah that the Lord set before them the following decree as a standard to test their faithfulness to him. He said, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his sight, obeying his commands and keeping all his decrees, then I will not make you suffer any of the diseases I sent on the Egyptians; for I am the Lord who heals you.”           Exodus 15:25-26

 

Here where the water is bitter. Here where the future is unknown. Here where the level of security in circumstances is at it’s lowest…this is where God calls them to be a people who listen?! I would think that he might have brought this up at a better time. Like say, right after leading them through the Red Sea when trust is high and everyone is feeling good. But he waits until the water is bitter. He waits until they are at a point of demaanding and questioning. God waits until they need him to give and then he says to them, “If you will listen carefully…”

 

But I would rather talk. I would rather explain. I would much rather talk than listen. That’s our natural reaction, isn’t it? Even those of us who don’t talk out loud. We talk internally, telling ourselves how unfair it is. How wrong they are. How much better it should be. And on and on.

 

Listening though…well it’s hard to nail down what that even looks like or how it’s practiced. Especially when life is bitter. We would rarther complain, demand and question. We would rather something or someone just fix our circumstances than stop and listen.

 

It’s interesting to me that the Israelites seem to assume that the water being bitter is a probelm; that it’s wrong. Isn’t that just how we are? But how can God be the Lord that heals you if nothing is ever broken, if things are never bitter?

 

I’ve noticed in my life this tendency; this assuming that difficulty or the bitter water is a mistake, a problem. Maybe God was “asleep at the wheel” and it’s up to us to wake him up our complaining and demanding. But what if the bitter water, the unwanted experiences, the probelms we face, what if all of that is mean to be an experience with the Lord that heals us? What if it’s meant to be a call and an invitation to listen carefully?

 

What would it be like if when facing tragedy and difficulty we stopped challenging God’s faithfulness to us and started looking at our faithfulness to him? If we listen carefully we might just learn and hear and see that there is more going on than just what’s in front of us. We may experience something beyond the bitter taste in our mouths.

 

right behind you

It’s nice to think that God is out in front, leading the charge in our lives; to think in terms of following. I mean, it was Jesus himself who said, “Come follow me.” So thinking of God being out in front, us following behind, this is good imagery and I think it’s the way God leads us…except when it’s not. Sometimes in life I’ve found myself looking forward, looking in the direction God has been leading me, and wondering, where did God go? It doesn’t feel like he’s out in front. It doesn’t feel like he’s leading.

 

Sometimes I wonder where he’s gone and why I don’t seem to sense his presence leading as much as I have in the past. It can feel like God led out into a place or a circumstance only to then suddenly disappear from leading the procession.

 

What I’m learning is that God doesn’t always lead from the front. I think that often he does. I think that often God chooses the “Follow me” method. But sometimes God knows what we really need is a push in the right direction. Sometimes God leads from behind.

 

Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to the rear of the camp. The pillar of cloud also moved from the front and stood behind them. The cloud settled between the Egyptian and Israelite camps. As darkness fell, the cloud turned to fire, lighting up the night. But the Egyptians and Israelites did not approach each other all night.         Exodus 14:19-20

 

The situation has become bleak—from the perspective of the Israelites. There does not seem like any good way to go. The Egyptians are behind them and the sea is before them. This would seem like there isn’t a move that could be considered a good choice. Most likely—if left to themselves—the Israelites would have just turned back to the Egyptians, given themselves up…and been slaughtered for it. Afterall, there is only water out in front. But God has other ideas and he divides the Israelites from Egypt.

 

Then the angel of God, who had been leading the people of Israel, moved to the rear of the camp. 

 

Sometimes God leads from behind to protect us from going back. To keep us from turning in that direction. Sometimes it’s to push us forward even when forward doesn’t seem like a desirable option. The prophet Isaiah speaks of God’s tendency to go to the rear of the procession as well.

 

Your own ears will hear him.
  Right behind you a voice will say,
“This is the way you should go,”
  whether to the right or to the left.              Isaiah 30:21

 

Right behind you a voice will say…

 

Right behind you.

 

I don’t know why, but I’ve never given much thought to God leading me from behind. I guess I’ve always loved the idea of him out in front, blazing the trail, cutting the path. But there is something comforting about God leaning over my shoulder, his voice, confident and clear, “This is the way you should go.”

 

Sometimes God leads us from behind us—as much to protect us from our enemies as to protect us from ourselves and the choices we would make if that direction were an option. There are times in life where the only way I’ll be going the way I should go is if I get a little push. So when I look out front and don’t see God leading I’m going to remember: Sometimes God leads from behind and I’m going to listen for his voice and look for his way—the way I should go.

 

keep listening

What do we do when life gets worse instead of better? What happens when we feel and believe that God is about to turn things around and we’re sure he promised he would and then, well, he doesn’t. Things get worse. The pain gets more intolerable. The relationships divide further. The money problems get bigger. What do we do then? What happens when we put all our hope in God doing something—something he said he would do—and then things go further in the wrong direction?

 

Flounder. That’s usually what we do. Struggle. Give up or in our out. We doubt, we hurt, we question. We stop trusting.

 

So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery. Exodus 6:9

 

We are just like the Israelites. Time may have separated us, cultures and mindsets may be completely changed, but we are no different. They refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged. For them it was their slavery, admittedly far worse than anything most of us will face in life. But for us it’s usually circumstantial as well. We become to discouraged by our suffering, our mistreatment, our sense of unwanted-ness. Maybe it’s our fear, our repeated failures, our lack of having our own needs met in our relationships. We become discouraged by our questions that go unanswered, our pursuits that go unresolved, our friendships that are broken.

 

The list goes on and on. Things happen and we become discouraged. Nothing wrong with this. Life is sometimes discouraging. But we stop listening to what God is saying; stop trusting that he is working; stop running after the ways that he’s leading.

 

Why? Because things went badly? Because we thought he was coming to rescue and instead it felt like he turned and went the other way?

 

The Israelites just knew God wasn’t coming because the immediate things got harder. And after all, if God is going to do a miracle, won’t it be instantaneous? It took Moses forty years in the desert of Midain just to be ready to come to the Israelites so I’m thinking maybe we are too short-term focused, too oriented to immediate gratification.

 

Whatever you are in, wherever you find your self, how ever discouraging it is, hang in there. Keep listening, God is speaking. Keep looking, God is moving. Keep trusting, God hears your cries for help and he is concerned. He is coming. Maybe not as soon as you’d like, but he is knows where you are and he cares.

 

You can be sure that I have heard the groans of the people of Israel, who are now slaves to the Egyptians. And I am well aware of my covenant with them.
  ”Therefore, say to the people of Israel: `I am the Lord. I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt.       Exodus 6:5-7

 

can i hear?

During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.   Exodus 2:23-25

 

God sets the example for us. He shows the way. God hears the cry of the oppressed. God sees the hurt of those who are mistreated. God listens when the weak cry out. And God, in his concern, finds a way to reach the hurting and the needy. God seeks out the poor. He cares.

 

What about me? Do I follow my God’s example? Do I hear the cries of the hurting?

 

I must confess, I have often become numb to the cries of the hurting. I have been suspect of those who ask for help. I have been more concerned with how others will respond to my offerings for rescue or assistance than with making sure that I am offering myself to them. I have been less inclined to be poured out as a drink offering and more concerned with those who would drink and how and with what kind of appreciation. 

 

When did it happen that the people of God became less accepting and more judgmental than God himself? When did we take it upon ourselves to determine which hurting were worthy of our time and attention? How can it be that after being given the greatest mercy and grace imaginable we dole it out to others as if we had only sparse amounts in reserve?

 

Or is it simply that we do not hear them at all? That somehow we have become deaf to the cries for help? Are our TVs too loud, our schedules too busy, our pursuit of our own wish lists too consuming for us to give an ear and hear.

 

This is not the first time God sets us this example. It is not only here in Exodus and it is not only fro whole nations that are crying out for help. It is for the one as well as the many. Just ask Ishmael, child of parents with little faith and less patience.

 

God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.          Genesis 21:17

 

God heard the boy. Not the nation, not the people. The boy. One boy. A boy who should have been discarded by God. He stood for disobedience to God’s promise and God’s ways. He was the result of Abraham and Sarah not trusting God and waiting on God, but taking matters into their own hands.

 

Instead God loved him. God heard him. God helped and rescued him. This is what God does. He hears those who cry out for help. And he comes and offers help.

 

Can I be like this? Can I hear the cries? Can I learn to care enough to drop everything and give all to bring help to these hurting? God sent Moses to Egypt, a foretelling of how he would send his own son to the whole world. God sent all for the sake of those crying. Because he heard and he cared and he was concerned.

 

I want to hear the cries. I want to take the steps to do what must be done to help the hurting. I want to go forward even when it hurts to see the hurting. Even when it costs to reach out to them. Even when they don’t want what I offer and reject my gifts of love. I want to hear them, I want to care, and I want to help.

 

I confess that I do not hear very well, because I do not want to hear very well. In my own city there are thousands who are hungry, abused, mistreated, unwanted, unloved, traded as possessions. Thousands—if not more. It hurts to listen to their cries. And it costs me dearly to reach out for them. I do not even know how to reach out to them. God, show me the way. Open my ears. help me to hear.

 

I have indeed seen the misery of my people…I have heard them crying out…I am concerned about their suffering.        Exodus 3:7

 

still

It seems like a regular occurrence in life: I suddenly take a look around only to discover that life is flying by and I am racing at ridiculous speeds. Sometimes I’m struck by the fact that another month is half finished before I hardly realized it had started. Other times I am made aware of how fast life is passing when I realize how quickly my children are growing up. Other times I am struck by the fact that it seems like it was just 2003, but that was seven years ago! The verse of Scripture that comes to my mind at times like this is usually that familiar—perhaps all too familiar—passage from the Psalmist: “Be still and know that I am God.”

Be still.

 

As life gets more and more hectic that direction from God gets increasingly more difficult. At first glance one might assume that this would be one of the easier things God says to do. With all the rules and regulations people seem to get caught up in one would think that the command, “Do nothing” would be a welcomed task that we would excel at. But with the demands on our lives increasing and life itself moving faster and faster being still becomes more challenging with each new day.

 

The whole verse actually goes like this:

 

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.    Psalm 46:10

 

So the idea, as I read it, is that God is saying we should be still and know that He is God so that we will exalt Him. This does make sense. Life can get us moving so fast and so frantic that God can be forgotten in the day to day rush of needs, requests, and problems that we face. It isn’t that we stop believing in Him or begin openly rebelling. In truth, it more just that we forget Him. Forget that He is there. Forget that He is speaking to our hearts. Forget that He is interested. Forget to tell Him what we are going through.

 

We just forget. So we don’t exalt Him.

 

Being still and knowing that God is God sounds fairly straight forward…until you try to do it. Then the cares rush in, our minds go on long wandering sprees, and we become fidgety. At least that’s been my experience. It’s hard work, this being still. But it’s invaluable as well. It re-centers our lives and focus on Christ. It grants perspective and direction. (Sometimes I am embarrassed to realize that I have been frustrated with God’s lack of answering when I have not been still long enough to listen!)

 

Most importantly, it builds relationship with the Creator. It deepens our interaction with him. And that is what he has always been after—us. Nothing more, but nothing less. He wants us. Unfortunately we are often running so quickly from this to that to the other thing that we fail to hear him calling, see him acting or feel him loving. It is time to make the time to be still. To listen and be loved.

 

When was the last time you were still before God?

 

if you hear

My kids are always asking me, “Daddy, how do you know when God is talking to you?”

 

They have this hunger, this desire to hear God’s voice. And they want it to be clear, they want it to be big, they want it to be powerful. And so I am often explaining that it’s usually subtle. And quiet. And whispered.

 

“But how do you know…?” they persist.

 

It is a difficult question—a more difficult answer. And it always leads me to wonder at how we crave God’s voice, that subtle Spirit move within us. There is an awakening, as we learn that God can in fact speak to us. We want to hear him, we want the connection; the guiding and comfort of the Creator-voice.

 

…today, if you hear his voice… Psalm 95:7

 

These are words of possibility. These are words of hope to me. “Today, if…” It means I could. Today he could speak. More accurately, today I could hear. Today his voice could break through all the stuff that clogs my hearing. Today God could grasp my attention and speak. Today I might hear him.

 

It is remarkable to me that with so much desire for his voice I have such trouble with the hearing. Am I so easily distracted? So quickly drawn to other things that I don’t listen long? That I don’t wait for the gentle whisper? Of course, that answer is a regretful, “Yes.” I run quickly to God, but just as quickly back to “living” life. Why do I insist on keeping the two separate? I hurriedly, almost reflexively seek him through out my day. But I rarely linger and simply—quietly—just listen. Why do I keep on acting as if prayer is just a chance for me to talk?

  

If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.          Mark 4:23

 

I don’t know on how many occasions Jesus says these exact words, or variations on these words, or how many times he simply invites us to hear what is being said—what is really being said. But I know that it occurs multiple times. Jesus is always offering for us to hear. It seems God too wants his voice heard.

 

“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” In the future I would like to return to this thought and look more at the ideas surrounding the how of hearing, and the why of not hearing. But for today it would be enough just to have ears for hearing.

 

God, I pray you give me ears to hear today.

be still…then speak

God invites us into a relationship. He doesn’t just want drones that do His bidding and leave Him alone. God wants us to know Him, to engage, to interact. It’s all about relationship, not just rules.
 

The problem is that we often tend to lead with our mouths, not our ears when we come into a time of speaking to God. We do, after all, have things to say: there are points to be clarified, requests to be granted, cases to be made. In truth, most of us never think of coming to God and spending time with Him unless or until we have something we want or have been victimized by the world in some way.
 

It’s not natural for us to come to God just to be. 

But look what Solomon wrote regarding time spent with God: 

Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.  Ecclesiastes 5:2-3 

  

What he seems to be saying is “talk slowly, be intentional, think before you speak.” 

“But I thought God wanted to be in relationship, to be our friend? I thought we were safe with Him and could tell Him anything!” 

  
We can. God is a big boy and He certainly can take our rants and our unfair assessments of His action or apparent in-action. He can handle it when we fly off the handle, and He loves us regardless of what we might say…or do. 

But again, it’s a relationship.

Have you ever said something you regret to someone you are in relationship with? Ever stuck your foot in your mouth or spoke in anger or ignorance only later to wish you hadn’t said anything until you understood more?

I know I have. And I’ve always wished I had thought a little more before I spoke.

It’s a relationship, and God is the grown up. He’s the one with all the answers here. He has the complete perspective—he controls the whole enchilada.

“God is in heaven and you are on earth so let your words be few.”

 

This is not a call to a limited relationship or to holding back with God. It’s a call to being more intentional. A call to listening first. To remembering my own ignorance.

It’s about being honest with God. And being honest with God starts with recognizing that we aren’t equal. He knows more, loves more, see more, does more, is more. So it might be smart to listen first. And to speak with intention.

That’s why Solomon follows with these words about speaking to God:

“Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.”            Ecclesiastes 5:7

Solomon isn’t saying don’t talk to God. He’s saying, take your time, listen, be still before you be vocal. Take your time. In this hurried culture of go, go, go, this may be one of the greatest challenges on our spiritual journey.

When was the last time you slowed down enough to really listen to God, before launching into your own agenda of words, words, words?

 

Before you say what you want to say, ask yourself, “what does God have to say?” You might be surprised.