Expectations!

Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus!

~ Christmas Hymn of the Day ~

"Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus"
Author: Charles Wesley

Based on: Haggai 2:7

"’And I will shake all nations,

and they shall come to the Desire of all Nations,

and I will fill this temple with glory," says the Lord of Hosts."

~Meditation ~

"Expectations"

"Anticipation" is a big part of a believer’s spiritual life, and "Advent" lends itself right to "anticipation". In the Old Testament days people "actively" anticipated the coming of the Messiah. Are we as urgently anticipating the advent of the Savior today - - - to triumph over sin and death with the trumpet blast of His Second Coming?

"Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" is just one of more than 6500 hymns written by Charles Wesley. He published it in 1744, five years after "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" was published, in a small collection of eighteen poems titled Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord. It is a hymn of Israel’s Messianic expectation: Christ, born a King destined to reign forever over the hearts of all men.

The tune we most commonly use with this hymn is "Hyfrodol", which means "good cheer". It is a popular hymn tune used frequently with other beautiful texts.

The text of this beautiful hymn promises us that Christ comes to set us free and to release us from our fears as well as our sins. Fear is a strong emotion, one that can paralyze us completely if we don’t have some way of finding release from its grip. I remain convinced that my fear was the greatest danger I faced a few years ago during a time when I had to deal with multiple physical problems, surgeries, procedures, and consequences of complications from one of those procedures. My surgeons, my other doctors, nurses, friends, family - - - all of them - - - were much more certain than I was about the probability of a "good" outcome. Why was this so? For a while, I was paralyzed by fear, and for a while I found it difficult to "find my rest" in God, as the hymn says. I looked to myself and my own "strength" during the ordeal, and I found it lacking.

When I once again turned to God for strength and consolation and hope, He was as faithful as the promise we find in the words of Jesus, "I will not leave you comfortless". I have come to believe more than ever before that this is one of the greatest promises in all of Scripture. To know that we are not alone when we are passing through the valley of the shadow of death is to know consolation and to know peace. It often enables us to do the impossible, to face the inconceivable and to "win" . . . to experience the truth that my best friend spoke to me when I called her from ICU after days of being on a ventilator and in a coma following one of my surgeries. Her first words to me were, "Life wins."

When circumstances occur that appear to be less than a "win", such as happens with terminal illness and with sudden or untimely death, we are able to face what we have to face with assurance and with consolation and with hope, because He faces it with us, and never leaves us comfortless.

There are other powerful words in this short hymn. Think for a moment about the implications of a King coming to the world as a tiny Baby in a rough and rude stable in a "nowhere" kind of township like Bethlehem. This is a bit like going down to the public hospital in Atlanta and being told that a Baby born on a cold, dark, rainy night on a back-alley street is to be the Messiah. This is an astounding thing to think. I believe it was no less astounding to shepherds in the fields outside the city of Bethlehem to whom angels appeared singing "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill to men." (Notice that here too, in the Nativity story, singing plays a part. Music has always been a part of God’s scene.

"Born Thy people to deliver, Born a child and yet a King . . . Rule in all our hearts alone, Raise us to Thy glorious throne." Words of wonder, of mystery, of power these are. God has done in Bethlehem what He promised to do so many years ago. He has sent us salvation in the person of a tiny Baby ~ His only Son, Jesus. He does indeed deliver us and release us from our fears and our sins, and He raises us to His glorious throne to live with Him for eternity if we but believe in our hearts.

Prayer ~ Come, Thou long-expected Jesus . . . come again to each of us that we may know the peace that passes understanding, and that we may be released from fear and sin and find our rest in You. We thank you for forgiving us when we fail to trust and fail to allow You to rule alone in our hearts . . . when we give in to the temptation to trust in our own strength, and to do it "our way". We praise You and we look forward with joy to welcoming You anew into our hearts and our daily lives so that You might set up that gracious Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Bless us with renewed faith and hope and strength in this Advent season as we contemplate the miracle of Your coming. Amen ~

Activity ~ Do something this week to deepen your longing for God. Is there anything in your life that rivals God for your attention and love? Are there things in your past that keep you from drawing closer to God? Do you, as I do, often try to handle things "on your own" without seeking the presence of Christ in your everyday life? Now is a good time for some self-examination.