I was at a dinner the other night with several other pastors.  One of the pastors gave a benediction at the end of our time together.  He talked about the advent season and how it is actually a time of waiting.  We count the weeks down to Christmas day in anticipation of the birth of Christ.  We wait for the Savior.  We wait for the hope He brings.  We wait for God’s gift to us in anticipation of what that Gift brings to our lives.  So my rendition of the benediction that night went something like this:

I like that.  As we wait together in these weeks before Christmas day, I wait in anticipation of what God will do among us in 2009.  I wait with expectation of what churches will be planted in Mexico.  I wait with the hope of kids in Brazil who will be saved because we made a commitment this Christmas.  I wait to see how prisoners in body and soul in Thailand are set free because we cared.  I wait to hear reports of transformation from the Guzmans in Trenton as well as from Waveland and Tampa.

I trust that you have been spending time with God concerning your Faith Promise for 2009.  Those resources will change lives.  Please pray.  Please listen.  And may God bless you in your time of waiting.  May He speak directly into your heart.  And may your waiting bring you closer to Him and to His plan for you in 2009.

See you this weekend.