His Timeline or Yours?

I have the patience of a 5 year old which makes parenting a 3, 6, and 8 year old a bit interesting. Not a day goes by where I don’t find myself praying for God to give me more (patience, not children).

I wish I had the patience of Simeon. He spent a lifetime waiting for the first Christmas. To borrow from C.S. Lewis, it was “always winter, never Christmas” as Simeon waited for the promised Messiah. In Luke 2 we read get his backstory:

“Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.”

Simeon is such a good example to us. My typical, impatient response to long waits usually involves a retort of “finally” or “about time”. My expectations can turn in to entitlement which robs me of the chance to experience gratitude.

Simeon, in his waiting, never let entitlement slip into his longing. His response to seeing Jesus was one of joy and gratitude and worship. Simeon provides a perfect model of patience: being filled with the Holy Spirit and living a righteous and devout life.

Too often in our walks with God we allow entitlement to creep into our hopes and expectations. In my own life I can treat answered prayers as what is owed me. Or I can become petulant and whiny in my prayer life as I wait for God to remove a burden or obstacle. Perhaps I am alone in getting frustrated in the waiting, but I’d imagine there are others who experience the same thing.

This Christmas I want to encourage your heart to be grateful for the work God is doing in your life, even when it doesn’t happen according to your timelines. Waiting on God is tough business for sure but we can rest in God’s goodness and faithfulness, knowing that he will act in the fullness of time to bring about our salvation.