DEC 11 ADVENT @ BC 2022!
This page contains one of the devotionals in our Advent 2022 mini-devo series, devotions created by members and partners of our church community. For more information on Advent @ BC 2022, CLICK HERE.
Sunday, December 11th Advent Mini-Devo - By Pastor Krystal Holl.
Waiting sucks. There I said it. I know sucks isn’t the best word to use, its not the most politically correct, I often get told do not say that word, but quite frankly most times it is the word that accurately reflects what I am thinking and feeling. I abhor waiting. Maybe I need an “attitude check” (as we frequently did to each other at Fall Retreat.) I know my attitude and my heart do not align when it comes to waiting. So here I am checking myself.
The devotional today comes from James 5:7-8. “Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, BE PATIENT AND STAND FIRM, because the Lord is coming near.”
James, here is talking about being patient until the Lord’s return. He gives us the example of a farmer who waits patiently for his crops to grow. However, it got me thinking about before the crops grow the farmer is working. It is not what the farmer is waiting for, he knows what is to come. However, it is how the farmer is waiting. It is the work he does to prepare for his land to yield and produce a crop.
Life is full of waiting. Waiting is not going to change. It is a steadfast fact of life. We wait in lines, we wait in designated waiting rooms, we wait to buy things, we wait in traffic to get places. It seems like life is a never-ending cycle of waiting. We want the instant. We want the immediate. We want things now.
I think I hate waiting because I have got a case of the “hurry bug”. I just go and go and go. And anything that slows me from my pace is a hinderance to the things I am trying to accomplish. Waiting takes time, Waiting takes patience, which I have little to give.
Sometimes we get so caught up in the hustle and bustle that I think many of us have forgotten what we are waiting for. Each year we celebrate Advent, we light the candles, we sing Christmas songs, we focus on the themes of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love, and Jesus’s birth. Then we enter into January and soon forget this season of anticipation, we soon forget that the Lord is coming again.
What if we are focusing on the wrong thing? What if it was not about what we are what we are waiting for rather how we wait. We wait joyfully knowing Jesus is coming back. Many of us can reiterate the reason we wait. We go through Christmas season after Christmas season overwhelmed, stressed and busy. We often get to Christmas morning and feel none of that hope, peace, and joy we have been talking about for weeks. What if we were to change what to how and begin to focus on how we are waiting. Like the farmer and his crops, what he was waiting for was known, it was how he chose to wait, how he chose to spend his time, what he did in the waiting.
Applying this principle to us, we know who and what we are waiting for, maybe it is time to focus on how we are waiting. Challenge yourself, this week think about how you are waiting right now, give yourself an attitude check. How we wait matters. It matters for the farmer hoping his fields produce crops. It matters to us who trusts the Lord is coming again, so how are we spending out time waiting. Are we waiting joyfully? Patiently? Expectantly? Lovingly? Peacefully? Hopefully? Or do we find ourselves waiting religiously, busily, overwhelmed, stressed, and downright exhausted?
I read this quote “patience is not the ability to wait, it is how we behave when we wait.” So continue to ask yourself, how are you waiting this year. How are you waiting this season? What are your behaviors like? How are your actions toward others? What posture are you taking? “Joy to the World” is our hymn for this week. I love that line that says “Let every heart prepare him room.” Let us prepare, let us make room for what Jesus is doing in our lives, let us sing, let us praise, let us wait patiently standing firm, let us find joy while we wait for God to return!
This page contains one of the devotionals in our Advent 2022 mini-devo series, devotions created by members and partners of our church community. For more information on Advent @ BC 2022, CLICK HERE.
Sunday, December 11th Advent Mini-Devo - By Pastor Krystal Holl.
Waiting sucks. There I said it. I know sucks isn’t the best word to use, its not the most politically correct, I often get told do not say that word, but quite frankly most times it is the word that accurately reflects what I am thinking and feeling. I abhor waiting. Maybe I need an “attitude check” (as we frequently did to each other at Fall Retreat.) I know my attitude and my heart do not align when it comes to waiting. So here I am checking myself.
The devotional today comes from James 5:7-8. “Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, BE PATIENT AND STAND FIRM, because the Lord is coming near.”
James, here is talking about being patient until the Lord’s return. He gives us the example of a farmer who waits patiently for his crops to grow. However, it got me thinking about before the crops grow the farmer is working. It is not what the farmer is waiting for, he knows what is to come. However, it is how the farmer is waiting. It is the work he does to prepare for his land to yield and produce a crop.
Life is full of waiting. Waiting is not going to change. It is a steadfast fact of life. We wait in lines, we wait in designated waiting rooms, we wait to buy things, we wait in traffic to get places. It seems like life is a never-ending cycle of waiting. We want the instant. We want the immediate. We want things now.
I think I hate waiting because I have got a case of the “hurry bug”. I just go and go and go. And anything that slows me from my pace is a hinderance to the things I am trying to accomplish. Waiting takes time, Waiting takes patience, which I have little to give.
Sometimes we get so caught up in the hustle and bustle that I think many of us have forgotten what we are waiting for. Each year we celebrate Advent, we light the candles, we sing Christmas songs, we focus on the themes of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love, and Jesus’s birth. Then we enter into January and soon forget this season of anticipation, we soon forget that the Lord is coming again.
What if we are focusing on the wrong thing? What if it was not about what we are what we are waiting for rather how we wait. We wait joyfully knowing Jesus is coming back. Many of us can reiterate the reason we wait. We go through Christmas season after Christmas season overwhelmed, stressed and busy. We often get to Christmas morning and feel none of that hope, peace, and joy we have been talking about for weeks. What if we were to change what to how and begin to focus on how we are waiting. Like the farmer and his crops, what he was waiting for was known, it was how he chose to wait, how he chose to spend his time, what he did in the waiting.
Applying this principle to us, we know who and what we are waiting for, maybe it is time to focus on how we are waiting. Challenge yourself, this week think about how you are waiting right now, give yourself an attitude check. How we wait matters. It matters for the farmer hoping his fields produce crops. It matters to us who trusts the Lord is coming again, so how are we spending out time waiting. Are we waiting joyfully? Patiently? Expectantly? Lovingly? Peacefully? Hopefully? Or do we find ourselves waiting religiously, busily, overwhelmed, stressed, and downright exhausted?
I read this quote “patience is not the ability to wait, it is how we behave when we wait.” So continue to ask yourself, how are you waiting this year. How are you waiting this season? What are your behaviors like? How are your actions toward others? What posture are you taking? “Joy to the World” is our hymn for this week. I love that line that says “Let every heart prepare him room.” Let us prepare, let us make room for what Jesus is doing in our lives, let us sing, let us praise, let us wait patiently standing firm, let us find joy while we wait for God to return!