An Advent Invitation to Prayer and Renewal
WAITING FOR JESUS RICH VILLODAS
Author of Good and Beautiful and Kind and The Deeply Formed Life, winner of the Christianity Today Book Award
WAITING FOR JESUS
WAITING FOR JESUS
An Advent Invitation to Prayer and Renewal
RICH VILLODAS
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First published in the United States of America by WaterBrook in 2025
First published in Great Britain by Rider in 2025 1
Copyright © Richard A. Villodas, Jr. 2025
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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. (www.zondervan.com). The “NIV ” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica Inc.™ Scripture quotations marked (esv) are taken from the ESV ® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (kjv) are taken from the King James Version. Scripture quotations marked (msg) are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers. Italics in Scripture quotations reflect the author’s added emphasis. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC and Harold Ober Associates: Excerpt from “Tired” from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad with David Roessel, associate editor, copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC , Harold Ober Associates and International Literary Properties. WaterBrook, an imprint of the Penguin Random House Christian Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC and Hodder and Stoughton through PLSclear: Excerpt from The Narrow Path by Rich Villodas, copyright © 2024 by Richard A. Villodas, Jr. Reprinted by permission of WaterBrook, an imprint of the Penguin Random House Christian Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC and Hodder and Stoughton through PLS clear.
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
PART ONE: WAITING
DAY 1: THE FOUNDATION OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE 11
DAY 2: GOD WORKS IN THE DARK 16
DAY 3: REFUSING TO ACT BEFORE GOD ACTS 21
DAY 4: WAIT TRAINING 26
DAY 5: WAITING FOR THE CHILD 31
DAY 6: THE FOOLISHNESS OF WAITING 37
PART TWO: PEACEMAKING
DAY 7: JESUS OR HEROD 47
DAY 8: SHALOMING THE WORLD 51
DAY 9: DISRUPTING FALSE PEACE 56
DAY 10: PEACE BEYOND UNDERSTANDING 62
DAY 11: GLORY TO GOD, PEACE TO US 68
DAY 12: RECEIVING PEACE 73
PART THREE: REJOICING
DAY 13: INCREASING YOUR JOY 81
DAY 14: COMPLETE JOY 86
DAY 15: JOY THROUGH SINGING 90
DAY 16: FOLLOWING CHILDREN INTO JOY 94
DAY 17: JOY AND SORROW HELD TOGETHER 98
DAY 18: JESUS, BRINGER OF JOY 102
PART FOUR: BEHOLDING
DAY 19: BEHOLDING GOD 109
DAY 20: SAYING YES TO GOD’S INVITATIONS 114
DAY 21: SLOWING DOWN TO PONDER 118
DAY 22: BEHOLDING THE “GOD WITH US” 121
DAY 23: HOLY SILENCE AND SOLITUDE 125
DAY 24: BEHOLDING OUR BROKENNESS 129
DAY 25: THE KING IS BORN (CHRISTMAS DAY) 133
NOTES 139
WAITING FOR JESUS
INTRODUCTION
Christ came. Christ comes. Christ will come again. This summarizes the season of Advent.
For many people, time is oriented around a cultural calendar that we organize life around. Every month, there’s a holiday, various school breaks, and rhythms that we keep. But for the person who wants to live into the story of Jesus, a new vision of time is needed.
For the Christ follower, the new year doesn’t begin when January 1 arrives; it begins with the news that God came. And that he comes. And that he will come again.
In the church calendar, Advent marks the beginning of the year. It’s the start of a new year for the Christian. It reminds us that fresh starts and new beginnings are not prod-
ucts of our willpower, or realities that surface when a new calendar year begins, but rather expressions of God’s grace in Christ.
Advent means “arrival.” This season compels us to look for the one who arrived on earth two thousand years ago and still arrives in our world today. Advent is preparation for Christ’s arrival. It’s what Christmas is all about: God with us. Yet preparing for Christmas is often not focused on Christ. We tend to get ready for Christmas by setting up the Christmas tree, filling stockings, and waiting for the arrival of our Amazon purchases. (Preaching to myself here.) We are culturally formed to prepare more for the arrival of Santa than the coming of Jesus. We leave out cookies and milk by the fireplace (or maybe on the fire escape!).
But setting out cookies and milk is not what preparing for Christ’s arrival looks like; rather, we should be preparing our hearts and our attentiveness. The season of Advent opens us up to the surprising ways of God. In Advent, we are invited to wrestle with our longings, desires, and hopes for a world marked by grace, goodness, and peace. It is a time to recall the biblical truth that the renewal of our lives and our world is found in God’s coming among us in Jesus Christ. Advent is a season to reignite a spirit of prayer. Every season in the church calendar has a particular emphasis.
Lent reminds us to place God’s ways—and not our appetites—as the guiding principles for our lives. Eastertide calls us to feast and rejoice in Christ’s resurrection. Pentecost in-
INTRODUCTION
vites us to be filled with God’s life because the Spirit has been poured out. Ordinary time forms us to see God in the mundane.
Advent trains us in hopeful waiting.
In this devotional, you will find twenty-five days of reflections and guided structures for prayer. There are four main sections. Traditionally, the four weeks of Advent are built around the words hope, peace, joy, and love, but this devotional is based on the words waiting, peacemaking, rejoicing, and beholding.
My hope is that you will find truth and encouragement to cultivate a life of communion with God in this Advent season—that you would be moved to prayer. My hope is that, by his grace, this book will ground you in the midst of a distracted world, help you wait on Jesus, and discern the ways he arrives in your life today.
To wait well is part of the Christian life. Yet this is what I know to be true about my life and yours: In this season, we might not wait well. We might become impatient and disgruntled and lose hope. But, dear friend, the good news of Advent is not that we are faithful in our waiting; it’s that God is faithful in his coming.
HOW TO USE THIS DEVOTIONAL
This book is designed to help you travel through the first twenty-five days of December, culminating in a final reflec-
WAITING FOR JESUS
tion meant to be read on Christmas Day. I encourage you to set aside a consistent time and place to read, journal, and pray through this book. I’ve attempted to make each day’s reading brief enough to fit into fifteen minutes; however, those who desire to linger longer may do so.
Each day is comprised of two parts: (1) a devotional written by me that unpacks a portion of Scripture related to one of the four themes of this book (waiting, peacemaking, rejoicing, and beholding), and (2) space to reflect on the day’s theme. In the second part, you’ll find the following elements to help you enjoy God’s presence and go deeper:
• Prepare: an invitation to spend a few moments in silence before God
• Prayer for Presence: a short prayer to dedicate your time to God
• Scripture: a passage to look up in your Bible if you desire to
• Guide: a thought-provoking quote from a wise voice in recent or ancient church history
• Question: a prompt based on the day’s theme that you can pray, discuss, or journal about
INTRODUCTION
• Closing Prayer: a way to conclude your time and invite God into your day
Depending on how you like to process with God, you may want to have a pen and a notebook or journal nearby. If you’re using this devotional with your spouse, family, or small group, the questions might tee up meaningful conversations.
As you embark on this journey through Advent, may the Lord bless you and keep you.