When evil still creeps in unchecked and we wonder why God doesn’t swoop down to stop it, it can feel as if He isn’t even paying attention. Psalm 11 speaks to us when we feel that nagging doubt.
When things feel urgent and broken, we want a solution that works right now—and that impatience is exactly what Luke 19 puts on display as the Palm Sunday crowd shouts “Hosanna” at Jesus, certain he’s about to deliver the instant fix they’ve been waiting for.
As the Israelites finds themselves out in the wilderness for years, Numbers 20 shows a people in a fog of discouragement — even Moses himself loses sight of what God is doing. But even when the discouragement feels overwhelming, we don’t have to let it get the final word.
We’ve all wanted to write that resignation letter—to let the world know the hurt isn’t our fault. Joseph faces that exact urge in Matthew 1, betrayed and confused after he finds out Mary, the woman he is betrothed to, is pregnant — forced to choose between saying his peace and keeping it.
Waiting is hard—praying for years with silence the only reply, watching others move while you stand still, wondering if God has forgotten or if you took a wrong turn. That was Isaac in Genesis 25: married at forty, still childless nearly twenty years later, the promise hanging unfinished. What do we do in the long stretch when nothing seems to move?
It’s easy to hunker down when life gets complicated. We’ll just manage what’s in front of us and quietly wonder whether God’s bigger plan still has a place for us in it. Genesis 24 takes us to the story of a family facing down that same question.
We keep wanting peace now—the right circumstances, the right outcome, the right person in charge—and that hunger is not wrong, just misdirected. In Luke 19:41–44, Jesus weeps over a city shouting for peace while blind to the only kind that lasts, and his tears raise an uncomfortable question about what we’re actually seeking when we seek it.
We want our way to be heard right now. We want results yesterday. But, if that’s not the approach God takes towards us, is it the approach we should take towards others?
Pastor Tim contemplates living lives of patience on this Fourth Day of Christmas. How can we show patience in our faith and to those around us?
What do the days we live in indicate? What should we truly be anticipating? As life and the uncertainty of the world swirls around us, God calls us to focus in our anticipation.