Virtually everything good God does comes with a delay. In fact, it seems like the greater the revelation, the longer the delay.
That was true with the blank page at the end of the Old Testament. The last word is “curse” Malachi 4:6. Then silence from God. The blank page lasts for 400 years. Finally, the page is turned. The Anointed One has arrived. The silence is broken. A wait that started from the beginning of time, and culminated in a final 400 years of silence, suddenly came to an end at the birth of Jesus. Angels burst onto the scene and suddenly announced the arrival of the blessed one, the answer to the curse.
That was true for the first Advent and it is true in your life now. The delay, the blank page, the silence is the time God makes us wait. Why?
As Augustine put it: “Simply by making us wait God increases our desire, which in turn enlarges the capacity of our soul, making it able to receive what is to be given to us.”
Here are two questions to ask while waiting:
- God, what do you want me to discover about You?
- What do you want to change about me?
Resist the temptation to force things. Because you are tired of waiting, you might rush to make your own solutions, answer your own questions, make your own way. As a result, you live admid the wreckage of Plan B. Instead, wait. Live out Psalm 130:5 “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I have put my hope.”
The valley between history and hope is often empty and long. The only way to make it through the blankness of that time is to trust that God will turn the page in his time. The God who promises: a new life, a new birth, new heaven and a new earth, a new heart, a new name, and a new song is at work doing a new thing, even during times of silence. Advent teaches us that God will turn the page in his time. Beyond what you can see, more than you can dream, bigger than you can appreciate, farther than you can reach. Right now your life may be like staring at a blank page. No matter how silent God seems, no matter how delayed the answer, no matter how blank the page, don’t stop waiting, don’t stop hoping, God is up to something good.
