By Godfrey Miranda

And being assembled together with them,
He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for the Promise of the Father …
(Acts 1:4, NKJV)

“I can’t wait!” It’s an expression of enthusiasm and eagerness. When we say it, we’re not admitting a literal inability to wait, but we’re giving voice to the difficulty of being patient until the fulfillment of whatever our expectation might be.

And that’s just it. Waiting isn’t always welcomed.

Like the other night when our family spent what felt like an eternity waiting to exit a parking garage in downtown Denver after a Nuggets game. Waiting can be difficult for a variety of reasons, especially when we feel like we’re waiting on God for a hope to be fulfilled. Our waiting can turn into complaining about unmet expectations, or, worse yet, it can decline into doubt about whether our expectations will ever be met.

The biblical concept of waiting, however, doesn’t have to sap the joy out of life and can actually renew our strength (Isa. 40:31). When the Bible invites us to wait on the Lord, it’s not a passive experience but an active one, actively binding our weakness to God’s strength. How? By sharpening our focus on God’s promises. This is why the resurrected Christ gives specific direction to the disciples’ waiting in Acts 1—wait for the Promise of the Father (v. 4). When we focus on God’s promise, our waiting can be a time that grounds and grows our faith.

REHEARSE THE PROMISE

So they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
and were continually in the temple courts blessing God.
(Luke 24:52-53, NET)

What a precious picture! The disciples, after Jesus’ ascension, were full of faith, hope, and joy. They weren’t despairing over the absence of their Lord but anticipating the Promise of the Father who would clothe them with power from on high (Lk. 24:49). This is why they didn’t return to Jerusalem to hide or mourn as if defeated. No, they went back to worship and praise because the promises of God assured them that they were just getting started.

In the very temple precincts that Jesus just weeks before had been seen as a public enemy in the eyes of the Pharisees, the disciples were unabashedly blessing God. They were giving voice to what He had done and what He promised still to do. When we find ourselves waiting for what we hope God will do in our lives, we don’t have to take a stance of doubtful silence.

No, we can lift our voice to rehearse His promises,
blessing God for the promises He has already fulfilled and
refreshing in our minds the promises He has yet to fulfill.

Listen to Ellen G. White’s description of the disciples upon their return to Jerusalem:

“They knew that they had a Representative in heaven, an Advocate at the throne of God. In solemn awe, they bowed in prayer, repeating the assurance, ‘Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.’ John 16:23, 24. Higher and still higher they extended the hand of faith …” (The Acts of the Apostles, 35)

The disciples recalled the words of Jesus and repeated those blessed assurances, and this allowed their faith to reach higher and higher.

There’s a tendency to let spiritual forgetfulness creep in as time passes between promise and fulfillment. Choosing to repeat God’s promises counters that slow fade. Whether this happens in public settings of collective worship or more quiet settings of closet prayer, our waiting becomes reviving when we vocalize God’s praise and rehearse His promises.

APPRECIATE THE PROMISE

But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;
and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the end of the earth.
(Acts 1:8, NKJV)

We may be waiting for God to fulfill His promises of healing, or wisdom, or whole relationships, or any number of things He has pledged in His Word. But after the ascension of Jesus, the disciples were waiting on a very specific promise—the Holy Spirit’s presence that would empower them be His witnesses to the ends of the earth! When we see the disciples waiting, we’re supposed to see more than their dutiful obedience. We’re also supposed to see their great dependence.

The promise of the Holy Spirit was precious to them
because they were fully aware of their own insufficiency.

The more they felt their need, the more they appreciated “the Promise of the Father.”

The disciples felt their spiritual need and cried to the Lord for the holy unction that was to fit them for the work of soul saving … They realized that the gospel was to be carried to the world, and they claimed the power that Christ had promised. (The Acts of the Apostles, 37)

The magnitude of the disciples’ global mission didn’t paralyze them. No, it prompted them to appreciate God’s promise and claim it in prayer. Jesus had paved the way for this by spending much of His final conversations with the disciples clarifying just how precious a gift the Spirit would be to His followers in the ages to come. Just a quick review of John 14-16 reminds us that the Spirit would …

What a precious promise indeed! For the disciples then and disciples now! We may be waiting for God to fulfill all kinds of promises but let me suggest that the one need of primary importance is our need for the Holy Spirit.

What are you waiting for in this season? We don’t have to let our waiting turn into a time of discouragement or doubt. Instead, we can fix our eyes on God’s promises. May we cultivate habits of rehearsing the promises of God’s Word in a way that revives our hope and expresses itself in genuine worship while we wait. And may we learn to appreciate the promise of God’s Spirit in our lives who brings all other blessings in His train.

PRAYER

Father, I pray for this kind of faith that is fixed on Your promises. Guard my heart from spiritual forgetfulness and bind my heart to the strength found in Your Word. Open my eyes to my need for Your Spirit and let me appreciate just how precious a gift You’ve pledged to us.

—Godfrey Miranda is lead pastor at Littleton Seventh-day Adventist Church. Photo by Michael Pointner of Unsplash.