Waiting Archives - HERALD AND BANNER PRESS

Waiting for Christ’s Coming.

Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13‑18.

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (v. 14).

From 1955-58, my father was pastor of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in the little town of Dublin, IN. There were not many men in that church. I can only think of three. One of them was Donnie Day. This brother carried his guitar and songbook from revival to revival in our area. The song that he sang that sticks in my mind said, “Wait a little longer, please Jesus…A few more days to get our loved ones in.”

Waiting is usually not much fun, at least not for me. I often find myself counting from 1-100, over and over, while I wait – just hoping the event will happen before I finish. For me, waiting is associated with inactivity – wasted time. But Donnie Day’s song reminds us that not all waiting is time wasted. Waiting may mean the difference between a loved one being saved or lost.

But how can we redeem the time while we wait? A retired missionary from Alaska, Sis. Honeycutt had a different perspective. For her, waiting on Jesus is like a waitress “waiting” on you at a restaurant. That person’s goal is to meet all your needs as best they can so that you will have a good experience.

How are we waiting on Jesus? Counting to 100 over and over again, wishing He would hurry up? Or are we busy meeting HIS needs? (Gordon L Snider)

“While I am waiting on Jesus to return, I will focus my mind on pleasing Him and meeting His needs.”

Have you ever tired of waiting on God?

In "Word Focus" Danny McCain writes concerning Psalm 40:1:

The expression waited patiently is literally “waited, waited.” The repetition of the verb is a Hebrew idiom used to stress the action of the verb. The phrase could be translated, “I simply waited; I did nothing but wait” (Joseph Alexander, The Psalms). The point that the psalmist was making was that he remembered spending a lot of time waiting. As one reads through the Psalms, he is impressed that other psalmists did a lot of waiting, too. They mentioned this because they were probably impatient.

Source: Studies in the Psalms: Adult Teacher's Insights, page 34.