Read Acts 3:17-4:4.
In the Advent season, we wait just as the masses in our reading had, but this year our waiting feels different. We have longed for things to return to “normal,” to be close to peers, friends, and family, to feel as if we have some control in the midst of the situation we have found ourselves in since March — all while we wait for the Lord.
How have we spent this time of waiting? What are we doing in our waiting now? Have we sought out the Word of God? Have we cried out to God with our fears, hesitations, and doubts, or have we kept those things bottled inside ourselves? It is in our release of these feelings and emotions that we can more clearly hear the Word that is being shared with us this day.
In the third chapter of Acts, we find many Jews waiting for God’s promise of a Messiah for many, many years. Waiting was not easy for the Jews, nor is it any easier for us today. The Advent journey reminds us that true peace comes from the waiting, watching, listening, and acting upon the words of the prophets, similar to the message Peter preached to the masses. Peter’s call and witness to a loving and faithful God in the midst of waiting speaks to us this day, just as it did for the five thousand that heard the Word preached and proclaimed.
Pray
Lord God, give us strength as we wait, to be steadfast in our faith. Forgive us when doubts and fears fill our minds and hearts. Move us to cry out to you and to seek your truth through your Word. Surround us with peace, knowing that you will come again to restore our broken spirits and our broken world. Amen.
Rev. Erin Farry
Campus Minister
Words for Waiting 