Not Losing Hope While Waiting (Simeon’s Story)
By: Kristen L. McNulty
Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.
In our lives we often find ourselves waiting.
Waiting for the traffic jam to clear.
Waiting to one day get married and have kids.
Waiting for the dream job.
Waiting for the cheque in the mail.
Waiting for healing to come.
Waiting for answers to our prayers.
Waiting for God to fulfill a promise.
We Don't All Wait Well
In our lives we all wait for things, but unfortunately we all don’t wait well. We have become a people who can’t handle delays well and we want things right now. Like right now. Part of that is human nature, part of that is the side effects that come from living in an instant gratification society, but all of it is a problem that can put a barrier between us and God. Because it might not be a spiritual issue for you to wait for the light to turn green, but it most definitely is if you’re waiting for a prayer you wanted answered yesterday to come to pass, but the longer it takes, you are losing faith, hope, and trust in the God you are waiting on.
In the Christmas story we encounter someone who had been waiting for a long while. His name was Simeon and we learn his story in Luke, chapter 2, right after it records the birth of Jesus and right before Jesus' parents brought Him to the temple. Picking up at verse 25:
At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Messiah. Luke 2:25-26
Simeon Eagerly Waited
So here is a man who was not only waiting for something, he was eagerly waiting. We don’t know how long he was waiting, but we do know something very significant: Simeon didn’t let his faith get shaken by the wait. How do we know that his faith didn’t get shaken by the wait? The answer lies in verse 27:
That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. Luke 2:27
Someone who has lost faith doesn’t allow himself to get led somewhere by the Spirit. And someone who has lost faith and given up hope in the promise of God certainly doesn’t follow the Spirit of God to a temple. Throughout our churches, there are empty seats that once belonged to people who attended, but stopped because they lost faith during their wait.
Our Faith Should Be In Who God Is, Not What He Does
So where does that leave you and I? Well it leaves us in a place where we can’t afford to tie our faith in who God is with what He does. There are times in our lives when our prayers aren’t going to get answered. There are times in our lives where we are going to have to wait before they do. But that’s not a reason to abandon the faith, that’s a reason to dig in deeper. When we let our roots in Christ go deep, even when there are things we don’t understand or even when we spend more time in the spiritual waiting room than we wanted, that’s when our faith is refined into gold. Let’s not forget in the faith chapter, aka Hebrews 11, we are told stories about the heroes of the faith and what they went through. And then there is a line near the end of the chapter we can’t ignore. Verse 39 clearly says:
All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. Hebrews 11:39
None of them received all that God had promised, yet they still had enough faith to find themselves in the Biblical hall of fame when it came to faith. Will the same be said of you and I? Will we choose, like Simeon, to hold on to our faith tightly even when we wait? Even when we don’t understand?
Moving down in Luke chapter 2, starting at verse 28.
Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, "Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!" Luke 2:28-32
What faith it is to be holding onto God's promises so tightly that once they are fulfilled all your heart can grasp is going home to heaven, to be with the one who can be trusted even in the waiting. I don’t know about you, but I want a faith like that.
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