Encouragement for Today

November 22, 2024 Practice Hopeful Waiting CHRISTINE CAINE Lee en español

“The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him.” Lamentations 3:25 (CSB)

I love this time of year and the upcoming season of Advent when we prepare our hearts for the celebration of Jesus’ birth and the hope it stirs in us all. I especially enjoy reading the story of Mary and Joseph taking Jesus to the temple to dedicate Him to the Lord.

They encountered Anna, a prophetess who had faithfully served God in the temple through prayer and fasting since she was widowed after only seven years of marriage. According to Luke 2:37, she was now at least 84 years old, and for all those years, she had waited for the Messiah to come.

My heart is so tender toward Anna. It would have been very difficult in her day to be a widow. Without a husband to provide for her, Anna would have had a life of poverty and hardship, and without children, she would have endured shame and disappointment. Her life could have been marked by pain, grief, regret and resentment. She could have easily given herself over to understandable discouragement or disillusionment.

Yet Anna ran to God, not from God. She continued to wait for the promised One with faith, hope, trust and expectancy. And in her old age, she saw Jesus, the Messiah.

“The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the person who seeks him” (Lamentations 3:25).

Have you ever had an experience like Anna’s where you waited for a long-anticipated promise? In those times, it’s so tempting to think that God has forgotten us. It’s easier to believe that we’ll never see His promises come to pass than to risk being disappointed again. It can feel less painful to pull back from God and His people than to press in and risk rejection.

I understand that feeling, and I want to encourage you that it is still possible to trust God even when we can’t trace Him. We can trust that God is good even when things around us are not good, that He is faithful even if people have been unfaithful, that He will never leave nor forsake us even if others have, and that He will never fail even when we have failed.

As I discovered in my own night season, God is light, and in Him, there is no darkness (1 John 1:5). He who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).

Advent is when we remember that we’re waiting for the promised One who has come and is coming again. He will renew all things. There will be no more tears, sorrow, pain, suffering, injustice or death. All things will be redeemed.

We are a people who wait with faith, hope, trust and expectancy!

We wait like Anna.

Heavenly Father, please help me to be hopeful in my waiting. Help me remember that You are good to those who wait for You. I stand on Your promise that as I trust You, You will renew my strength. You will cause me to soar on wings like eagles, to run and not become weary, to walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31). In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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Join Christine Caine and Lisa Harper for a four-session Advent Bible study, The Marvel and Miracle of Advent, to renew your hope and spirit as you’re reminded that it’s not your behavior that earns the kindness of a holy God; it’s the presence of Jesus coming to earth to be with you always. This is an Advent study like no other! Get it today!

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FOR DEEPER STUDY

Luke 2:36-38, “There was also a prophetess, Anna, a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She 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. At that very moment, she came up and began to thank God and to speak about him to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem” (CSB).

Think of something you’ve prayed for that you’re waiting on. With this in mind, what does practicing hopeful waiting look like for you?

© 2024 by Christine Caine. All rights reserved.

Proverbs 31 Ministries thanks HarperChristian Resources for their sponsorship of today’s devotion.

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