Psalm 130
Your Story
Talk about a time when you were waiting for something good to happen. Did time seem to drag on? Did time go by quickly? Talk about what you were waiting for and how things turned out.
My Story and the Bible Story
Read Psalm 130. From The Message: Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help! Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy. If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshiped. I pray to God—my life a prayer—and wait for what he’ll say and do. My life’s on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning. O Israel, wait and watch for God— with God’s arrival comes love, with God’s arrival comes generous redemption. No doubt about it—he’ll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin.
The Israelites were waiting and watching for God. They were waiting for the Messiah to come, and with him, redemption. They waited for thousands of years, waiting and watching for God to arrive. And then, all of sudden, God was among them, in the form of Jesus. Many believed, but some continued to wait. This week, two weeks before Easter, is a time of waiting. Lent is a time of waiting. It is also a time to remember the things we have done wrong and to ask God for forgiveness as we prepare for Good Friday when Jesus died and Easter morning when Jesus rose again.
We wait a lot in our lives. We wait for 30 minutes after we eat before jumping in the pool. We wait in line for things. We wait for Christmas and birthdays to arrive. We wait for school to be out (and sometimes that feels like an eternity!) We wait for a new game to come out or a new movie to be released. We wait for pizza to be delivered and for sisters to find their shoes. We wait for TV shows to come on. We wait for news. We spend a lot of our lives waiting. Sometimes we wait for silly things. But sometimes we wait for good, important things to happen. We wait for babies to be born. We wait for college acceptance letters. We wait for summer break. We wait for vacation.
Waiting is hard. It’s hard to be patient when you are ready for something to happen. It seems like the hours take twice as long when you are waiting for the bell to ring and school to be out for the day. Christmas seems to take forever to get here. And for the Israelites, it must have seemed as if the Messiah would never come. Thousands of years is a long time to wait for God. And yet, they continued to hope and to pray and to wait, knowing that God would do exactly what God had promised. They knew that they could put their hope in the Lord because God would not let them down.
Maybe you are waiting to hear from God. Maybe you have been praying and praying, asking God for something and so far you haven’t gotten a response. Keep praying. Don’t give up. God doesn’t always say yes to our prayers, but God’s always there and always responds. Like the Israelites, you can put your hope in the Lord. He’ll never let you down. So keep waiting and keep praying. Don’t give up!
Discussion
• Ask your children to name some things they are waiting for. How long have they been waiting?
• Talk about different times when you have waited on God. What was God’s response to you?
• Ask your children to talk about times when they have waited on God. What was the outcome?
• Talk about ways we can use a time of waiting to help others and to grow closer to God.
Prayer
Thank God that God’s always there for us and that we can put our hope in God. Ask God for help in waiting for God’s response.
Jessica Asbell is currently serving as the Minister to Children at First Baptist Church of Roswell, GA. She has worked with children in various capacities at several churches, including Winter Park Baptist in Wilmington, NC, First Baptist of Decatur, GA, and Highland Hills Baptist in Macon, GA. She has a Master of Divinity from McAfee School of Theology and a BBA from Mercer University. In her spare time she loves to read, watch movies, and of course spend time with her sweet kitty, Lucy.
