Christmas is a time of waiting. Sunday we talked about several challenges to the waiting game:

• We must discipline our minds so that our thoughts don’t run wild.
• We continue with life, do regular work and duties, stay on task – waiting feels like work.
• We will experience a wide spectrum of emotions and thoughts, many ups and downs. Waiting is not a calm, tranquil, settled experience. It’s like a roller-coaster ride at times. It helps to expect that kind of ride.
• We must reject solutions and options that offer short-term relief but provide no long-term fulfillment.
• It’s ok to let ourselves dream about and focus on the joy that lies ahead.
• Your prayer life may change as you become experts in waiting.
• As we wait, it will be very tempting to become self-absorbed but we must devote ourselves to loving and serving others as much as we can.

In the meantime God is at work, changing us into the type of people he wants us to be. As you wait for whatever it is you are waiting for this Christmas, don’t be discouraged by what you haven’t accomplished or what isn’t happening or those goals that have not been reached. Focus instead on the kind of person you are becoming as you wait. Bottom line is we can trust God for a few bedrock things:

• He has taken care of our past through the cross of Christ
• He has assured us a wonderful future in the new heaven and new earth
• He will always be with us
• He never stops working to change us into the kind of people we were created to be

May God give us the grace to trust him every hour of every day, whether we are “singing” as we wait or whether we are “groaning.”

This Sunday our celebration of Advent continues as Scott Jackson teaches the Word. Come prepared to celebrate.