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Waiting is a biblical virtue which is associated with patience, submission and dependance on God. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave his followers a final instruction not to leave Jerusalem, but to first wait. By telling the disciples to first wait means that Jesus did not want his followers to go on mission unprepared or unequipped with power from above.
Waiting allows for the preparation and provision that is needed to succeed. The disciples were impatient and again asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (v6) The restoration of the kingdom was the hope of the people of Israel throughout their history. Their thinking was that God would send a Savior, and pour out His Spirit, and restore the kingdom to them that had been lost because of their rebellion. Jesus did not answer their question with a time or date, but He exhorts them instead to wait. He told them that: “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority (v7). There are things that belong to God and God alone. There are times and seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority and are not for us to know. As prophet Isaiah says, ours is to wait and hope on the Lord and so move in his strength and in his power (Isaiah 40:31). The apostles had asked about the restoration of Israel’s political power, but Jesus tells them that they will receive a different kind of power, which is God’s power brought to them by the agency of the Holy Spirit.
Waiting resists impulsiveness and prevents the spoiling of what is to come. God is very patient; at times he waits and sometimes He even delays acting. One great example was when Jesus died on the cross, was buried and stayed in a tomb for three days. God waited for three days and raised Jesus from the dead in great power which has become the hope of the Christian faith. God often waits until what seems like the last moment in which there is no hope left. Whatever challenges we face in life or in our Churches or our nations, we are encouraged to wait for the Lord, to be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord (Psalms 27:14). For those who persevere in the waiting and trusting of God will see the power of God. As followers of Jesus in our own generation, we are to heed his voice and do everything in accordance to his truth as recorded in the scripture. But if we attempting to do things in our own strength and by our own human innovations to gratify our own pleasures, we will fail. The only way to succeed is to remain in Jesus and his words in us. (John 15:4). On the day Ascension Day, his final word was first to wait. Our own culture tells us that the final word of a departing parents to their children is always taken seriously by the children. Therefore as Christians we should take seriously the final word of our Lord and keep ourselves pure as we wait for the blessed hope. (Titus 2: 12-14)
The Most Revd Dr Justin Badi
Primate of South Sudan and Chairman of GSFA
