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115: The Season of Advent
48 Plays13 days ago
This week’s episode was inspired by Louie Giglio’s Waiting Here For You, An Advent Journey of Hope.
“Advent is a season of expectant waiting and preparation. This devotional is perfect for those who are in periods of waiting or facing uncertainty. Through the story of the coming of Jesus, Advent teaches that waiting is the means God often uses to carry His plans in our lives. Pastor and author Louie Giglio brings hope and peace to readers as they wait with expectation during the season of Advent.”
Listen as Laura Fleetwood walks you through some of the main points of Louie’s Advent devotional.
https://www.waitinghereforyoubook.com/
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Transcript
Perceptions of Christianity
00:00:00
Speaker
The following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production. Christianity has become known for judgy people, strange words, ancient stories, confusing rules, and a members-only mindset.
Jill Devine's Journey
00:00:13
Speaker
This is why I stayed away from the church for so long, but it's not supposed to be that way. I'm Jill Devine, a former radio personality with three tattoos, a love for a good tequila, and who's never read the entire Bible. Yet here I am hosting a podcast about faith.
Faith and Real Life
00:00:28
Speaker
The normal goes a long way podcast is your home for real conversations with real people using real language about how faith and real life intersect. Welcome to the conversation.
400 Years of Silence
00:00:40
Speaker
What if the year 1624 was the last time that humans heard from God? 400 years. Can you imagine?
00:00:55
Speaker
That's what I'm thinking about this Advent season because from the end of the Old Testament to the beginning of the New Testament was 400 years.
00:01:10
Speaker
That time is known sometimes as the inter-testamental period or sometimes the silent years because we don't have a record in our scripture of God speaking through prophets from that time.
Significance of Advent Season
00:01:27
Speaker
And so his people, as you can imagine, we're just waiting.
00:01:34
Speaker
And that's what the season of Advent is all about, these weeks leading up to Christmas. It reminds us of how long God's people had to wait for the Savior, Jesus, to come. And it reminds us how we are still waiting for Jesus to return again.
The Purpose of Waiting
00:01:55
Speaker
So in this podcast, there are a few reflections that I wanted to share about waiting and um that they can be applied in our own lives because we're all waiting for something. But the thing is with God, waiting is never wasted. I know if you're like me, it's hard to wait.
00:02:19
Speaker
We are used to getting things on demand and having things shipped quickly when we order them. And so the, just the ability to wait well is something that we have to work at these days.
Insights from Louis Giglio's Book
00:02:37
Speaker
And I've been studying the book by Louis Giglio called Waiting Here for You. And it's a series of advent reflections um about waiting. And in this book, Louis shares four important points that we can learn about waiting based on how God's people waited for Jesus to arrive that first Christmas. And the first one is that God is working while we wait.
00:03:10
Speaker
That is a very comforting thought to me because when I get anxious or I get stressed out because something is not happening the way I want it to, or the way I think it should, or in the timing that makes sense to me. It's helpful to think that while I'm waiting, God is setting things into motion, putting pieces of the puzzle together that are necessary for my waiting to come true. I can't see the whole picture. I can only see the little knots in my life, but Jesus, says he sees the masterpiece. He sees the other side, the flip side. And so we can trust that while we wait, God is at work.
Transformation through Waiting
00:04:03
Speaker
The other thing that we can learn about waiting is that God will use our waiting.
00:04:10
Speaker
Oftentimes, as I think back on times when I was waiting for something to happen, I see how God was growing me and transforming me and teaching me things that I needed to learn in order for the outcome that I wanted to be fruitful.
00:04:33
Speaker
And so we can trust that God will use our waiting time for good. If you are in a season where you're impatient and you're waiting for um something to come true or to occur in your life, you can be confident that that time is not wasted. God is at work.
00:04:59
Speaker
And he's using this time to grow you and transform you in a special way.
Connecting with God in Waiting
00:05:07
Speaker
Third, we can wait on God and with God. So while we are waiting for God to show up, for God to speak, for God to work, all the things for good in our life, we can remember that he is with us, even during the waiting.
00:05:28
Speaker
And so we can use this time of waiting to grow closer to Him, to practice prayer and to read our scripture and to spend time in meditation, listening to the Holy Spirit in our lives. Because God is always there. Even when we can't sense Him or when we don't think that our lives are turning out the way that we wanted.
Trusting God's Timing
00:05:57
Speaker
God is waiting on us to turn to him. And that's the fourth reflection that I wanted to share. God is waiting on you. Think about how many times in your prayers you have prayed for something to happen and then consider God.
00:06:18
Speaker
listening to your prayers and ah waiting patiently for you to trust in him and trust in his timing. Just like his people all those years ago, during those silent years where no prophets were speaking God's truth and God's wisdom and they were quiet. They weren't hearing directly from God, but they still knew God was with them. And they still had the stories and the truths of how God had shown up in the past. And they had had faith that he would keep his promises for the future and sending his son, Jesus.
00:07:03
Speaker
And even with that, Jesus didn't show up in the way they expected as a royal, majestic king that would save them politically or that would usher in a new kingdom, an earthly kingdom. He came in an unexpected way.
00:07:23
Speaker
But He did come and He did answer their prayers.
Surrendering to God's Plan
00:07:29
Speaker
So we can see how God was working while they waited, how God used their waiting, how they could wait with God while they were waiting on God. And we can remember that God is waiting on us to turn to Him.
00:07:49
Speaker
So during this season of Advent, as we wait for Christmas and we wait to celebrate the birth of our loving savior, let's also practice waiting on other things in life, intentionally and thoughtfully and prayerfully and surrendering our timelines.
00:08:15
Speaker
to God's timeline because His timing is perfect. And just as He sent Jesus when the time was right, as scripture said, He will fulfill all that He has planned for our lives when the time is right. Be still.