Making Room in AdventSample

Making Room for a Promise

In Luke 1:5-10, it is as if Luke wants us to pay close attention to the symmetry happening between Zechariah and Israel. You can feel the tension rising here amid the waiting.

The people of Israel are waiting outside for Zechariah to offer the incense.

Zechariah has been waiting to have a child.

Israel has been waiting for the Messiah.

A barren couple and a barren nation.

Zechariah and the people of Israel have both been disappointed as they wait for God to fulfill his promise.

The people of Israel have been crying out to God for four hundred years to rescue them from their oppressors, but there has been silence on the other end. And Zechariah’s very name means “Jehovah has remembered.” But had God forgotten? This barrenness, this waiting, was not Zechariah and Elizabeth’s fault. They had done everything right in the sight of God. And Israel too—hadn’t they obeyed God’s law? Where was their Messiah?

I ache with them here. I know what it feels like to say all the “right prayers” and do all the “right things” but encounter God’s silence in the face of my longings. You too?

But what if God’s promises need to be gestated over a long time to prepare us to receive them—like a pregnancy?

Could it be that God was preparing Israel over four hundred years to make them ready for Christ?

Could it be that God was maturing Zechariah and Elizabeth until they were ready to receive John?

Could it be that God is still shaping us to receive his kingdom into our world?

There are many promises I am still waiting on God for in my life. But when I remind myself of the necessary preparation for a promise, I shift my focus away from wondering when he will answer my prayers and on to how he is preparing me to receive his answer when the time is ripe.

What can we do in times of waiting, then? We can stay present and allow God to stretch us to make room for what he is maturing inside us and our world. And we can keep watch with expectant hope for what is to come.

Ponder

How might God be maturing you as you wait for him to answer your prayers?

Pray

Inhale: Your promise will come in time.

Exhale: I can wait with hope.