How Advent Reminds Us To Be Faithful As We Wait

One of the low-hanging story arcs to many books is the hero's journey. It goes something like this: John was down and out, soon to be crushed by the world, but fate intervened, and he rose from the ashes to glory.

This is why good fiction authors always plunge their beloved characters into terrible hardship as quickly as possible.

In Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life Anne Lamont writes, "No matter what, you are probably going to have to let bad things happen to some of the characters you love or you won’t have much of a story." [1]

It's the same with us. Waiting, pain, and anticipation are all part of the story God is writing through our lives. And it's one of the focal points of this season of Advent.

For centuries, Christians have used the four weeks leading up to Christmas to slow down and pay attention to the ache beneath the surface of life—the longing for light, peace, and restoration. Advent invites us to sit with both the promise and the tension: the Savior has come, and yet the world is still being made new.

In the meantime, we wait.

Waiting Is a Mark of Maturity

Bruce Miller writes, "One of the key traits of a mature believer is to live waiting, to live expectantly and patiently for God to fulfill his promises." [2]

Long before Christ's birth, Israel carried a quiet ache for the promised one, watching the horizon for any sign that God had not forgotten them.

Simeon and Anna are two of the clearest pictures of this kind of waiting. Luke 2:36-37 says Anna was "well along in years, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and was a widow for eighty-four years. She did not leave the temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers."

She waited, and she waited.

Year after year, she and Simeon showed up day after day, trusting that God would keep his word even when nothing seemed to be happening. As they did, God deepened his work in their lives, and it's no surprise that they were among the first to recognize Jesus was more than a baby.

That's what waiting does. Waiting heightens our spiritual senses, and helps us be more alert for the subtle ways God is working—ways we are naturally prone to miss.

Why God Makes Us Wait

While I recognize the general good in waiting...for other people...I sometimes struggle to see its value in my own life. Perhaps you can relate.

We want the benefits of waiting and the joy of the payoff, so long as we don't have to endure the grind that precedes it. But as Adam Houge writes in When God Makes You Wait,

The greatest place He works is in the waiting place. It is there, in the quietness and stillness, that He silently operates on your heart. Like a skillful surgeon, He removes the hardened places, the plaque and rigid vessels that you weren’t aware you had, and He gives you newer, softer, more pliable vessels for His will. [3]

Think back over this last year, and chances are you can think of a few times when waiting turned out to be the best option. You thought you'd found the right home, but a better one came along. You thought that job was right, but you're sure glad it didn't work out.

While we don't always understand the why behind the wait, over time, we should grow in our confidence in the one who makes us wait.

How Do You Wait?

So how can you put waiting into practice?

Rev. J. Martin writes, "While you are waiting, it's vital not to try to work things out, asking yourself what else you can do. This just leads to frustration. Learn to turn it over to God, stop questioning why something hasn't happened. Have the faith that what you asked for will happen at the appointed time." [4]

Stop trying to rush the process and take on your shoulders a weight God didn't intend for you to carry. Because there is a little twist to waiting that we don't always appreciate. As Adam Houge adds,

The waiting place isn’t really about our waiting for God but, rather, about God waiting for us. We think we’re waiting for Him to reveal His will or the next step in His plan, but in truth He is waiting for our hearts to be prepared with the lesson He’s teaching us. So the waiting place isn’t about waiting at all. Instead, it’s a time of growth as we learn to be patient with God. [5]

So this Advent season, lean into the waiting.

Remember the examples like Simeon and Anna that have come before and choose to trust God in advance for what you believe he will do. In fact, I challenge you to do this right now.

After coming out of a season of Thanksgiving where we remember all Christ did for us this past year, take a few moments today to pray in advance.

"Hope is faith waiting for tomorrow," John Ortberg notes, so thank God for the hope of your future, for the same God that was with you in 2025 will be with you in 2026 and beyond.

[1] Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Function, Kindle ed.), 43.

[2] Bruce B. Miller, When God Makes No Sense: A Fresh Look at Habakkuk (Wisdom Book 3) (Dadlin Media, 2017), 37.

[3] Adam Houge, When God Makes You Wait (Kindle ed., 2015), loc. 89.

[4] Rev. J. Martin, Gods Perfect Timing: Surrender, Trust in Him. Leave Your Stressful Life Behind (Kindle ed., 2016), 22.

[5] Adam Houge, When God Makes You Wait (Kindle ed., 2015), loc. 103.

[6] John Ortberg, Faith and Doubt (Zondervan, 2008), 85.