Waiting well

What are you waiting for?
How patiently, expectantly, hopefully, are you waiting? 
Simeon was waiting to see God's promised Messiah. Many others in Jerusalem had given up. They lived in such a broken world, full of unfulfilled hopes and desires. They were weary of waiting for the arrival of One who would make everything right. The Jews felt like captives in their own city. Jerusalem was run by the Romans, who were often greedy and corrupt in collecting taxes and meddled with the religious practices. By this time, Israel had been tyrannized by idolatrous, violent empires for 700 years.
For 400 of those years God had been silent. It seemed like the mighty works of God were in the past and only a faint echo remained. Many doubted whether they ever actually happened. They wondered; If God was so good, why was He so distant‚ so silent? In this setting, Simeon waited in hope, in faith, in the spirit. He waited for the Christ whom God had promised to show him before he died. He trusted God and waited for God's promise to be fulfilled.
When Simeon finally encountered the Christ child, he spoke words of good news which have offered renewed hope to all who are weary and waiting. In Luke 2 verse 32 Simeon says that salvation in Christ is, “prepared in the presence of all peoples,” is “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” Jesus is both the consolation of Israel that Simeon had waited for and the revelation of God’s salvation to all the nations of the earth. In Jesus, God’s promise to restore Israel is fulfilled. And in Jesus, God’s promise to bless “all the families of the earth” through Abraham is fulfilled. He is the one to fulfill all our hopes.
Some of us may have grown weary in trusting God and waiting for Him to act on our behalf.  So, I hope you'll be encouraged by Simeon's story to look to Jesus and wait for him by faith, wait in the spirit, and wait for Christ's return with hopeful anticipation. He will make all things right in the end.
We must remember that God is not slow to act, as some understand slowness. He came in “the fullness of time” (Gal 4:4), and he will come again “on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed” (2 Thessalonians 1:10).
So, let us wait in hope, by faith, in the Spirit, for Christ. Until he comes again.
Good things come to those who wait.

Rev Tanya