Advent

When most people think of advent they think of calendars, chocolates, Christmas, candles. A quick google search for advent and I had to go to page 3 to find anything real about advent (save for good ol wikipedia!)

Advent comes from the latin adventus which means 'coming' so in essence advent is about waiting for something that is coming

Queuing, Traffic, Doctor's surgeries, packages, are all examples of times we have to wait, and they are all things we associate with frustration. Waiting is something we are not very good at. It's not very attractive and it's not a very popular discipline in this western culture where we want everything 'Now', we don't like to wait.

Advent however is all about waiting for the coming of the saviour, the coming of the one who will set the captives free. It's about making straight the path for the coming of the Lord as John the baptist said.

The scriptures have several references to waiting: -

Ps 27: Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage

Ps 37: Those who wait on the Lord will inherit the Land

Is 40:31 "But those who wait upon God get fresh strength, they spread their wings and soar like eagles, they run and don't get tired, they walk and don't lag behind."

So what is involved in waiting? Waiting involves reflecting, repenting, resting, longing, hoping, expecting, trusting in His timing.

'Waiting on the Lord' seems somewhat of a lost art in our culture, even in our prayer lives, for myself anyway I find it hard to spend time just waiting for God to speak. But there is something to be said for waiting on Him. Isaiah 35 promises of a desert is bloom as we wait for the saviour. Waiting builds

• Strength
• relationship with the King
• disclipine (- early adveters in the 5th century used to go on 6 week fasts!)
• waiting enables us for the future
• It brings discernment for when to act..

..and that is the key - knowing when to move into action. I think we have an itchy feet syndrome where we feel like we must make something happen, something we are taught from youth that if you want something you have to go get it. But sometimes I think God is just asking us to wait for His prompting, because when we try to do things in our own strength we only end up messing it up!