Title: The Waiting Man (1 Peter 5:8-9)
Contents
According to psychologist Dr. William Marston, 94% of people's purpose in living is "waiting." People spend a lot of time, a lot of their hearts, and all their thoughts on waiting. waiting for something Waiting for news, waiting for things, waiting for people, waiting for opportunities, waiting for more changes, waiting for better years, waiting for more development. In this way, people spend a lot of time waiting for something. However, the fact is that waiting is not always so enjoyable. While we wait, we experience many heartbreaks. While we wait, there are those kinds of waiting that make us happy and amplify our pleasant imagination, but various emotions such as nervousness and impatience, irritability in physical exhaustion, anxiety, and performance resentment appear and we fight them.
However, I believe that the most precious waiting in this world is "waiting on the Lord." In Psalm 130:6, the psalmist says, "My soul waits more for the Lord than for the watchman for the morning, yea, more than for the watchman for the morning." for my salvation comes only from him.”
Now, in terms of church seasons, Advent is the season of spiritual maturity while waiting for the coming of the Lord. The first Sunday of Advent begins today. Advent is the season of waiting for the coming of the Lord. This feast is from today until Christmas when the Lord was born.
All the people of faith in the Old Testament, those in the New Testament, and those who live faithfully today were all waiting for the Lord.
Noah endured the ridicule of the people and built the ark for 120 years. Abraham waited 25 years waiting for God's promise. Jacob spent seven years counting as a few days to get only one woman, Rachel, whom he loved. Joseph waited 14 years for his dream to come true, enduring all kinds of conspiracy and suffering. David was anointed king and was driven away for seven years, waiting for that day to come. After receiving the promise to meet the Messiah, Anna did not leave the temple for 84 years and waited for the day to see the Messiah. All the great characters of the Bible were people of waiting.
“For the LORD is waiting to be gracious to you, and to have mercy on you, for the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him.” Isaiah 30:18
However, those who wait have their own special characteristics, which is the fact that they are "sentimental", "watchful", and "stand firm in the faith and oppose the adversary devil."
God says in 1 Peter 5:8-9, "Be sober and watchful, for your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour; stand firm in the faith and resist him."
Let's take a look at the three characteristics of people of waiting, focusing on today's text.
1. I am sober.
Self-discipline is to be careful with your manners and actions.
There is a saying in the Middle Ages that "a gentleman refrains when he is alone". People behave politely in front of others. When someone sees you, you try to walk upright. But when you're alone, it's easy to get distracted.
What do you think and do when you are alone? You have to see what you do and how you do it where no one is watching. That will be the true self, the person, and the state of faith.
As recorded in Psalm 1, those who wait "do not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor enter the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful." .
In the society we live in, there is a bachelor's party or a bachelor's party for the bride and groom who are about to get married. However, there are cases where this party ruins the wedding and ruins the married life. A good bride or a good groom doesn't have a bachelorette party or a bachelor party. Rather, they adorn themselves soberly and beautifully, dreaming of a sacred wedding, and wait patiently.
We are well aware that in the past, even in families that were dispatched to Vietnam or where foreign currency earning left at a construction site in the Middle East, there were some cases in which problems occurred because they pursued pleasure rather than waiting for their husband to return, and fell into an affair.
Those who wait are sober.
2, awake.
Even now, when the saints doze off or sleep, the devil comes and takes away their faith and makes them miserable like Samson who had his head cut off.
December 7, 1941 is the day a Japanese plane attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
That day was a Sunday. On the weekend, many soldiers go out drinking, dancing, and playing, and then come in late and sleep deeply. At that time, the Japanese aircraft carrier advanced to Pearl Harbor with many planes, and the planes on the carrier started attacking at dawn on Sunday. At that time, a soldier who was practicing radar control discovered that many planes were flying from the Pacific Ocean on the radar and reported to the upper management, "It is a friendly plane practicing." But early in the morning, Japanese planes were moored at Pearl Harbor. The Arizona was bombed and sank in just 10 minutes, and 1,200 trained soldiers died that day. Even now, if you go to Hawaii, there is a monument erected on the spot where the Arizona sank, so you can see the wretched state of that time.
The most important thing we need to do to welcome the coming Lord is to be awake.
Being awake means 'spiritual perception is at work'. A person who sleeps has no sense or consciousness. A person who sleeps cannot see, hear, smell, or touch, but does not know or think. However, even those who sleep spiritually do not have the same spiritual sense and consciousness, so no matter what event they encounter, they cannot connect it with God's work, always think only in the world, and cannot solve the problem religiously. However, those who are spiritually awake are those who always look to God and move toward God. He is a person who comes to God and solves everything, whether it be personal, family, or business problems. For believers, no matter how small or insignificant, and no matter how great, nothing happens without God. There is nothing by chance.
Those who wait for the Lord are living in this world, but they are not of this world. In other words, they are not people with values of this world, but people with changed spiritual values. According to this spiritual value, we refuse to settle in this world and wait for the Lord with sobriety. They are people who reject the temporary pleasures, security, and happiness of this world and live an awake life, looking to eternal life. We need to be alert and awake to this world.
3. We stand firm in our faith and resist the adversary the devil.
I saw the animal kingdom, where I saw lions hunting. Despite being the prince of the jungle, he hides secretly from the eyes of other animals, waits patiently, and snatches his prey in the blink of an eye when he initiates an action. It is said that lions do their best even when hunting a single frog. This is what a lion living in the jungle looks like. We are living a survival game in a spiritual jungle right now. Our adversary, the Devil, hides in secret like a roaring lion, seeking prey to devour.
The devil is not an object of compromise, but an object of the adversary. If you yield one to the devil, you must ask for two or three.
The life of faith is a life of waiting for the coming Lord. If believers in the Old Testament lived a life of waiting for the first coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, who came as the Lord of salvation, we, as believers in the New Testament, are waiting for the coming Messiah, the Lord of Judgment, Jesus Christ. I pray in the name of the Lord that you will always be sober and awake, make your soul beautiful and healthy, be faithful to the work that the Lord has entrusted to you, and fight against the enemy devil and sin even to the point of bloodshed, to be victorious in the name of the Lord.