He humbles our hearts as we wait (Advent week 1 day 1).

The preparation of our hearts begins with waiting. Waiting? That dreaded word! We don’t like to wait. Why? Because waiting humbles us … it reminds us that we aren’t in control … that we can’t save ourselves. It puts us in a place of depending on someone else. We don’t like it because it strips us down to simply “being” rather than “doing.” Most of our “doing” is about clothing ourselves so we don’t have to feel naked and vulnerable. Our “doings” are generally an attempt to clothe ourselves with relationships, possessions, or achievements.

To just “be” feels vulnerable but it is in our vulnerability that He meets us. It is not in our attempts to control things that we experience Him but in our weakness and dependence. When we feel vulnerable, with a lack of security or power or respect, we try to make things happen. We try to save ourselves. And that is our undoing …

It is when we wait that a Savior can appear. When we strike out on our own, we never sense our need and never cry out for help. We might ask him to help us save ourselves but He desires to save us into life with Him, being clothed in Him, not saving us with the clothes we think we want.

Initially, when we come to faith, it is because we stopped and believed that we couldn’t save ourselves. Then, day by day, we experience His salvation in our lives when we wait for Him to keep on saving us.

In Psalm 25:1-3, David cries out to God:

“To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in You I trust, Do not let me be ashamed; Do not let my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed; Those who deal treacherously without cause will be ashamed.” (NASB)

Why does he pray “do not let me be ashamed”? Because David was face to face with his need, his nakedness. He knew he needed to be clothed. He expresses the faith of waiting, knowing that God will clothe Him. Those who “deal treacherously” speaks of those times when we take matters into our own hands and David affirms that this always leads to shame, because we simply can’t clothe ourselves adequately. We are always left with incompleteness.

When we wait, we experience the God who has always been there. It takes stopping and waiting to notice what has been ours all along. When we wait, we become aware … aware of the ways we try to save ourselves and aware of the Savior who is always with us.

Make it a goal to wait today. When you feel that urge to take control of a situation, stop and wait for your Savior. Feel that sense of nakedness but let it be an invitation to trust, not action.

We’ll pray this prayer together through this week of asking the Father to humble our hearts as we wait:

Gracious Father, humble my heart as I wait on you. Give me the strength to stop and wait so that you can be the One who saves me. Give me eyes to see my nakedness today but then to trust that You alone can clothe me. Use your Word, the world around me, and the words of others that I might see You alone as my savior all the day long. Amen.