WAIT For It

The Urban Dictionary describes the three-word grouping as “a sentence-enhancing phrase, used to illustrate the epicness of an object/situation/event. Recently popularized and revived by How I Met Your Mother character, Barney Stinson.” If you ever watched the show, you know that most of his ideas were sure to be legen…wait for it…dary.

It’s also a description of how most of us spend many of the moments of our days, seemingly waiting for the consummation of something that has been promised, whether it’s a friend’s arrival at a restaurant, a summons to a doctor’s examination room, …or spiritually speaking, perhaps the fulfillment of a prophecy of some sort. The popularity of the cell phone has eased the tedium of the first two examples somewhat. We willing while away our down time checking face book messages, following recent tweets or sending text messages to friends both near and far away. We read blog posts by authors we follow, check up on the news of the day, or simply see what the weather is going to be like for the rest of the week. Before we’re even ready to put our phones away we’re called back to attention by the arrival of that for which we were standing idly by.

Waiting for the fulfillment of a prophecy is usually a  much different matter, requiring more faith and patience than some of the weaker-willed among us possess.  Hebrews Chapter 11 lists faithful believers considered heroes because of the long time they waited to see the things they were promised. The last verse of that chapter says that those listed died without seeing their promises fulfilled except from afar…because God made them wait for us. He wanted us to experience their glorious fulfillment together.

And yet the Amplified version of the Bible says that they received divine approval by the way they kept the faith. Surely there are some guides then in God’s Book on how we are to wait for the fulfillment of one of the greatest promises ever given, that of Christ’s return. We are told to look and long for that day, to expect it’s arrival, and to be eager to be found by Him at His coming without spot or blemish and at peace, living in confidence and free from fears, agitating passions and moral conflicts. It helps us to understand the delay when we consider that God is actually waiting on us…for those among us who have yet to resolve the issue of their salvation to believe on His Son while there is yet time to do so. Surely then we could hasten the day by doing all we can to hurry that process along.

Most of all we have to hold on to our hope for the arrival of that most epic of all events, the eventual and inevitable arrival of which, in Barney’s words and by all Biblical accounts, is sure to be  legen…(and worth the wait for it!)…dary.

“The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what he promises, according to some people’s concepts of slowness, but he is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance.”
(2 Peter 3:9 AMP)