5 Ways Advent Teaches Us to Slow Down and See God’s Promise

In a season where the world rushes ahead with decorations, purchases, and celebrations before Christmas even arrives, God calls his people to pause and remember that waiting has a purpose. 

Advent remembers the Christmas story, one filled with longing. Israel had waited centuries for the promised Messiah. Each generation read the words of the prophets, trusting that God would arrive even when he felt absent at times. On a smaller level, Mary’s pregnancy symbolized the prophetic longing. As the due date looms, women often get more uncomfortable and desperate for the promised child. Surely Mary did the same. 

When Christ finally came, he fulfilled every promise in ways no one expected. Advent reminds us how God always keeps his word, even when the waiting feels long. 

Christians today live another Advent, the promise of Jesus’ return. The waiting continues, but in a different context, in light of what God has already done. We live in a partially fulfilled Kingdom, here now and coming soon. When we slow down during Advent, we remove ourselves from the noise of the world and make space to recognize how God works today in glory for the future completion. 

Remembering how God fulfilled promises with his Son’s first coming, our hearts are shaped by this hope for the coming days. This hope isn’t wishful thinking. As Christ arrived before, he will come again. We find this confidence and expectation in God’s character. 

Hope grows with practicing patience. Each candle lit on the Advent wreath, each Scripture read, and each reflection remind us how God’s timing is perfect. We can worship in the waiting because of what God will do. 

Advent teaches us how to find hope not in rushing forward but in resting in who God is now. Along with the bigger promises like Christ’s return, we each wait for God to fulfill other promises in our lives. A new job, the salvation of a family member, and others. Advent becomes a way to slow down and trust, knowing God still works and comes through for us. 

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Along with waiting on the promises, Advent reminds us how God provides perfect timing when he finally fulfills those promises. 

Our culture values instant results—fast food, microwave meals, and online purchases shipped the next day are only a few examples. Waiting feels unnatural to us. Yet God isn’t bound by our culture. He remains the same and still works through a process. Scripture clearly shows how God works through times of waiting. The father of our faith, Abraham, waited decades for a promised son. Israel waited centuries for the Messiah. 

Christ’s arrival two thousand years ago met oracles from the prophets. Stars and planets even aligned for the event. Historically, many scholars have remarked on how the Roman world allowed for the quick and effective spread of the Gospel. Each aspect reveals a deep truth we try to resist—God’s timing is perfect, even when it doesn’t match ours.

Leading up to Christmas, the world hurries forward, but the Advent season invites us to take time and reflect. The lighting of candles through the weeks, even a nice calendar with chocolate for every day, reminds us how God’s plans unfold gradually, not all at once. Even when the night feels long, the dawn will come. Scripture shows us time and again how waiting shapes our faith. 

When we trust God’s timing, we understand a delay isn’t a denial. God’s promises never fail, but they come to maturity at his appointed moment. As a woman who’s experienced pregnancy, Mary couldn’t rush the birth process. In some ways, she might have desired to wait a bit longer instead of having Jesus in a stable of sorts. Either way, God’s timing will likely be inconvenient for us, designed by the divine to give the Lord glory, not make us comfortable. 

Waiting and trusting timing teach us patience, dependence, and humility. We learn how to trust before the blessing, staying surrendered to God’s will. We can stop clutching for control and start waiting with hopeful expectation. 

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God gives blessings during times of waiting. We don’t need to feel that the time is wasted. Advent calls us to make space for spiritual, biblical, and prayerful reflection. The Christmas season is filled with noise, lists, and distractions. But Advent communicates a different message: to listen, meditate, and reflect on the promises of God. We don’t wait in boredom. We actively use the intervening time before the fulfillment to read the Bible, study, and pray. 

Biblical meditation is different than how some in this world practice it. Some teach meditation as an emptying of the mind. Not so with the Bible. Scripturally, meditation happens when we think and consider God’s Word, what it means in general and for us, asking for and listening to God’s voice to renew our minds. We begin to see the bigger picture and how our lives fit within it. This becomes a valuable and constructive use of time. 

Making space for reflection requires intentional discipline. First, we turn off devices and sit in silence, which is more uncomfortable for us today with smartphones and constant media. Second, we have to focus our mind, keeping it from wandering on stressors or imaginary conversations. Third, we choose a specific truth or event to meditate upon. 

As we meditate, the Spirit brings us revelation, understanding, and conviction to change. We start to see how God works in the waiting. We hear his voice more clearly. Reflection like this realigns our priorities and desires on Jesus, whom we already enjoy through the Spirit. We can easily find Advent devotionals or scripture readings to guide us through the season. 

Hearing God more clearly, we become more aware of his will in the waiting. Our focus changes from worldly events and celebrations to internal transformation. The waiting becomes an amazing opportunity to let God’s word dwell richly within us. In this, we rediscover the wonder of God with us, Emmanuel. 

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When we experience difficult times or frustrating times of delay, we start feeling stuck, like this is how it will always be. We begin to confuse eternal truth with temporary circumstances. But our transitory situations won’t last forever and therefore shouldn’t define God’s promises, which are eternal. God shares his promises for the future to inspire us and give us hope to endure the waiting moments. Advent invites us to enter this eternal perspective. 

The Nativity teaches us how to look forward in faith. God’s people waited for hundreds of years before the Messiah arrived. God’s promise came true at exactly the right time. And he did arrive. In the same way, our waiting now isn’t empty or wasted. Every disappointment and uncertainty can be met with the truth of God, who will fulfill His Word. 

Meditating through Advent arms us with the Bible verses to help us fix our eyes on the eternal. As my mentor defined it, faith is the perception and pursuit of the unseen, heavenly reality. Faith gives us the revelation we need to see the heavenly realms and hear promises of what’s to come. The apostle Paul encourages us to “fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,” because what we see is temporary. What is unseen is eternal. Advent trains our brain to see these truths, making the invisible God more visible to us. 

Brokenness won’t be the end of the story. Faith helps us look beyond today. We can live with hope instead of fear, patience instead of frustration. Advent gets us to wait with such expectation. 

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As one of the weeks of Advent is Joy, the Christmas season becomes a time to find God’s joy within his fulfilled promises. God has already kept his greatest promise, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, coming to earth for our salvation and to deliver the whole world. Some scholars say Jesus’ life met the criteria for around 300 Old Testament prophecies. Even if we get conservative and say 200, each one of those proves a way to rediscover joy during the Christmas season. 

Through meditating and reflecting on Advent, we can also consider the ways God has fulfilled his promises in the past in our own lives. While we may wait on God to work in many areas, the Lord has shown up for us in the past and done many miraculous things. Just sitting for ten minutes and writing down all the ways God’s shown himself faithful to us in the past will lead to thankfulness and great joy, even in the midst of what may be a few sorrowful situations today. For me, I’ve seen God heal people, provide money in our bank account miraculously, and more. 

We can further find joy in what God will do. Christmas reminds us that God’s Word never fails. What he says, he accomplishes. And since God is eternal and outside of time, his finished work already exists. God is already enjoying us in the future, beyond the struggles of today. We can find joy in the glorious inheritance promised to us as sons and daughters of God. 

In one way, God’s joy doesn’t depend upon an event or a fulfilled promise. God’s joy exists within himself, the “joy of the Lord,” and with the Spirit within us, we can enter this joy at any moment and find great strength. Simply knowing God and experiencing his presence should bring us great joy. We’ve been reconciled to be one with a loving, caring, omnipotent God. 

All of these truths lead us to find joy in our faith. When we slow down during Advent, we see joy woven into several moments of the Nativity. Luke’s gospel has angels and people praising God all through the narrative. Let’s take a cue from Advent and the Christmas story, from heavenly angels bursting with worship. Choose to praise him for who he is, what he’s done, what he's doing, and what he will do. We can rest and act on his finished work with joy. 

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