For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8:24-25

During the past several weeks we have experienced the season of advent. As we have attended holiday celebrations, we have (hopefully) experienced how much more this season is than just partying and stuffing our faces. During this season we anticipate the coming of our Lord Jesus. It is a time of hope….and of waiting. And as we wait we can reflect on how the Lord uses waiting to build patience into our character.

In today’s passage Paul is talking about present suffering and future glory. Through Jesus, God has done something wonderful, but it is not complete yet. Since all things are not the way they should be yet, it is easy to feel dissatisfied and impatient! And food can seem like such a quick easy fix for those bad feelings —I can feel better NOW. But that kind of hope is a hope that is seen and it is really no hope at all.

Can we just muster up our own will power to be free of quick fixes? No! We must rely on something outside of ourselves. It’s focusing on God and his power that will give us patience. Will we be perfectly patient each day? No. Will God give us the grace to change? Yes!

Be encouraged by Psalm 62:5 that points us to our source: “Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him.”

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Galatians 6:1

I was enraged to learn that some Christian youths were bullying a young lady in their fellowship group. How dare they! How could Christians do that! Are they even saved?

I wondered why I was reacting so strongly…. then I began to remember something that happened years ago, when I was a teacher. While doing a grammar drill with my fifth graders, I made up drill sentences about fat people. Even though I was not picking on or thinking of any specific individuals, there really was sinful nastiness in my heart. If someone saw me or heard about what I did, I deserved to be rebuked. Would they have been enraged at me…how dare a Christian teacher do that! Or would they have restored me gently?

So, the bullies that I heard about did need to be called out. But the person calling out would need to do it with a certain gentleness that was meant to restore. Perhaps these young bullies were not even aware of the sin they were in…I know I was not aware of my sin when I uttered those grammar drill sentences about fat people, even though I should have known better.

I think these examples illustrate a major truth about rants against sin: the line between people we are enraged at and our own behavior can be a lot blurrier than we admit! How much we need the reminder to not give in to the temptation to erupt into a self-righteous rage and, instead, to restore with gentleness!

I am vulnerable before I have my first coffee of the day.

So, on a day earlier this week, against my will, some bad experiences on a past job began to replay in my brain in 3D Imax. After that annoying video concluded, I was reminded that the kinds of truths I describe in this meditation do not give an instant wiping clean of anything that torments us in our history. No, as is true of all scripture, these are truths that we need to keep being reminded of and re-applying.

A key passage that shows how God redeems our pasts for his glory is Ephesians 5:15-16. I will use the KJV version:

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Now, some modern translations will say something like “making the best use of the time” instead of “redeeming the time”. But let’s look at the Greek word in the original text. It’s exagarazo, which means making a payment to buy at the marketplace. The same Greek word is used in Galatians 3:13 (“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law”) and Galatians 4:5 (“so that He might redeem those who were under the Law”). In both these verses you see Christ making a payment at the cross to buy us out from being cursed.

Since Paul tells us how evil the days are, we need to “buy back” our time to be able to enjoy how today is a gift. But because we can be tormented by our history, we need to “buy back” how we look at our pasts, too. There is a great promise in the Old Testament that we can claim to help us redeem our pasts. Joel 2:25 says “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.”

Yes, our past is history, yet God restores it for his own glory. Just as Christ bought us back from slavery to sin, he can “buy back” what was negative in our past. When we were pushed around and beaten up and sinned against; when we sinned without even realizing it was sin; and even when we willfully disobeyed the Lord—-all bought back!

In the buyback, the power of the cross is central. Now that we have been adopted in to become part of God’s family and to be part of his plan, the power of the Spirit reshapes how we look at our history. What seemed devastating or hopeless at the time it happened we now see as part of God’s sovereign working to make us exactly who he needs us to be to experience today as his gift.