Simeon…was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him…Anna, a prophetess…spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
—Luke 2:25, 36, 38
Here we have the mark of a waiting believer. “Just,” righteous in all his conduct; “devout,” ever walking as in His presence; “waiting for the consolation of Israel,” looking for the fulfillment of God’s promises: “and the Holy Ghost was upon him.” This was the one mark of a godly band of men and women in Jerusalem. They were waiting on God, looking for His promised redemption. And now that the consolation of Israel has come, and the redemption has been accomplished, do we still need to wait? We do indeed. But, will not our waiting, who look back to it as come, differ greatly from those who looked forward to it as coming? It will, especially in two aspects. We now wait on God in the full power of the redemption, and we wait for its full revelation.
The Epistles teach us to present ourselves to God as “dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ” (Romans 6:11), “blessed…with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Our waiting on God may now be in the wonderful consciousness that we are accepted in the Beloved, that the love that rests on Him rests on us, and that we are living in the very presence and sight of God. In our waiting on God, let this be our confidence: in Christ we have access to the Father. How sure, therefore, we may be that our waiting cannot be in vain.
Our waiting differs, too, in that while they waited for a redemption to come, we see it accomplished and now wait for its revelation in us. Christ not only said, “Abide in me” (John 15:4), but also “I in you” (verse 4). The Epistles not only speak of us in Christ, but of Christ in us.
My life in Christ up there in heaven and Christ’s life in me down here on earth—these two are the complement of each other. The waiting on God, which began with special needs and prayer, will increasingly be concentrated, as far as our personal life is concerned, on this one thing: Lord, reveal Your redemption fully in me; let Christ live in me.