The Lord Will Answer You

Advent Day 7

First Saturday in Advent

December 3, 2011

Reading: Isaiah 30:19 (NRSV)

¹⁹ Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He (the Lord) will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you.

Theme: The Lord Will Answer You

Reflection:

The Lord will answer you! The Lord will be surely gracious to you at the sound of your cry. In this Advent season, in our worship, in our prayers and in our preparations we cry ‘Come Lord Jesus, Come!’ When you say these words are you merely following the traditions of Advent, or do you say them with the faith expressed in Isaiah’s words, believing that ‘the Lord will answer you’? Do we really think we can count on God to answer our prayers and send Jesus to us?

What signs and wonders will be the clue for you that God has answered your plea: ‘Come Lord Jesus Come’? Some of us pray for a vision of Christ, and some of us hope for just a sense that we are not alone. God may answer your cry in many different ways. There are many different narratives of the experience of perceiving Christ.

Some tell stories of having been lifted from the brink, physically feeling a sense of support. Others tell of having heard a voice at a time of great despair. Yet others tell of having seen some image that alerted them to the presence of Christ when they felt very alone.

In the 21^st century, when we count on reason and science, it is sometime difficult to trust in these shadowy, mysterious experiences. These experiences of Christ are usually very intimate and may be very difficult to share. In this Advent season, if you have experienced Christ in some way, pray about it, thanking God for having answered your plea. If you are able to talk about it, share your experience with someone you love and trust; your witness may strengthen someone else’s faith.

The Lord will surely answer your plea. “Come Lord Jesus, Come!”

Prayer: Mysterious God, in this Advent season, help us to pray with conviction “Come Lord Jesus, Come”. Strengthen our faith and help us to trust that you indeed hear and answer our pleas. Amen

Lord Have Mercy

Advent Day 6

First Friday in Advent

December 2, 2011

Reading: Matthew 9:27–31

²⁷ As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, crying loudly, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” ²⁸ When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” ²⁹ Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you.” ³⁰ And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus sternly ordered them, “See that no one knows of this.” ³¹ But they went away and spread the news about him throughout that district.

Theme: Mercy

Reflection:

How many times in our lives do we cry out to God for mercy? Sometimes, frankly, it is for stuff, that in the scheme of things, is not very serious. Maybe someone in front of us in traffic does something we consider stupid, and we cry out something like “God have mercy”. Or perhaps you have pulled a hot pan out of the oven, catching your bare arm on the edge of the oven. “Lord have mercy,” you mutter.

But then there are the times something really serious happens, a terrible diagnosis at the doctor, a tragic accident or a friend who is in deep trouble, and then you plaintively cry “Lord have mercy”, while clasping your hands in prayer. Or perhaps, sitting in church, after a week of one disaster after another, the liturgical Kyrie, with its “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy”, really hits home. Or maybe you hear these words “Lord have mercy” spoken with you, as you sit grieving a loved one.

The blind men in this text from Matthew cry “Lord have mercy” and truly believe that Christ, whom they consider Lord, will have mercy on them and in some way relieve their suffering. Jesus even questions their faith, and they are able to respond “Yes, Lord”, affirming their belief in Jesus’ power to positively affect their lives.

Each time you cry out “Lord have mercy”, either as part of a lament of your personal situation, or as part of our collective liturgical ritual, what would happen if Jesus were to ask you “Do you believe that I am able to help you”? Would you be able to respond ‘Yes, Lord, I believe in your power’?

In this Advent season, as we watch and wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, remember that we are also watching and waiting to experience the power of Christ in our own lives.

Prayer:

All powerful and loving Lord, help us when we cry out to you “Lord have mercy” to have the faith to truly believe that you come into our lives, and to help us to trust in your mercy and loving kindness. In this Advent season, may we experience the power of Christ in our lives. In your son’s name we trust and pray, Amen.

Be PATIENT !!#&#

Advent Day 5

First Thursday in Advent

December 1, 2011

Reading: James 5:7–8 (NRSV)

⁷ Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. ⁸ You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near.

Theme: Be Patient!

Reflection:

In our rush, hurry and get it done now culture, the words “Be Patient!” are likely to put many in people into a slow—no make that fast—burn. In the 21^st century patience is a highly underutilized talent. Baby boomers grew up with instant cereal, instant coffee and instant pudding, along with fast food, but we still depended on letters as a primary form of communication. Remember when a long distance phone call was a rarity; it was usually announced with “they’re calling LONG DISTANCE”! Our children’s children know a world of instant communications of both words and images, web-streamed movies, on-line purchasing, and electronic banking. Patience means having to wait because a company’s website is responding slowly with an overload of Black Friday purchasing.

In Advent we are called to be patient as we watch and wait for the coming of Christ. This patient watching and waiting can be interpreted on many levels. For children, the watching and waiting is the interminable December time until Christmas. We can hope that our children are watching and waiting for Jesus to be born, but undoubtedly there is at least a bit of waiting for Santa! We also watch and wait for signs of Jesus’ presence in our own lives. This requires patience and attentive watching, as we never know when we will get a glimpse of God’s Kingdom in our own lives.

As adults, we also know that we are watching and waiting for Jesus to return. This requires extremely patient, faithful waiting, as people have been waiting for two millennia for Jesus to return. When James wrote these words to the Jewish Christians during the first century, people expected Jesus to return within their lifetimes. We however, have 2000 years of perspective in realizing that Jesus may not return in our lifetimes, but then again, we can’t know the time or the place. We know Jesus will return because God has promised it, but we don’t know the when, where or how. This waiting requires much more patience than that possessed by those of us who live in this time of instant gratification.

Prayer: Patient and loving God, grant me the faith to believe and the patience to wait for the coming of your son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen

Wiping Away Tears

Advent Day 4

First Wednesday in Advent

November 30, 2011

Reading: Isaiah 25:7-8 (NRSV)

⁷ And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; ⁸ he will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

Theme: Wiping away tears.

Reflection:

For many people Advent is a bittersweet season. Advent calls for time to meditate and reflect on God’s promises. God’s promise in this text from Isaiah is to “swallow up death” and “wipe away tears from all faces.” In the Advent season, losses of loved ones are often particularly felt. Amid the hope, joy and anticipation of Advent, there is often an undercurrent of pain. This promise to swallow up death and wipe away tears is a powerful antidote to any sense of loss in this season.

I have read these words at many funerals in my time as a pastor. I felt, more than heard these words, as my brother-in-law read them at my mother’s funeral this past fall. In the promise of these words, I could feel my tears being dried, and I could feel God’s promise that death would be no more.

In this Advent season of watching and waiting for Jesus’ return, we have the assurance that God has made good on the promise and has indeed swallowed up death in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Advent is a season of HOPE. Because of Jesus, we have the sure and certain HOPE that our tears will indeed be wiped away.

Prayer: Good and gracious God, in this Advent season we pray for all people who feel the pain of loss. May you wipe away tears of all of us and comfort us with the promise that death will indeed be swallowed up. Amen

Stumps and Shoots

Advent Day 3

First Tuesday in Advent

November 29, 2011

Reading: Isaiah 11:1 (NRSV)

¹ A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

Theme: Stumps and shoots

Reflection:

I never cease to be amazed at how resilient plant life is. I have several junk trees that have grown at various places in my flower beds. If I were a better gardener, I might have pulled them out when they had weak spindly roots; however, by the time they attracted my attention, they were full fledged saplings. I have sawed at them, and my husband has hacked at the roots. But it seems that no matter what we do, there are shoots coming out of the sawed off stumps. I’ll think to myself—this time I’ve knocked that tree off. Yet the next time I look at the stump, lo and behold there is yet another green shoot emerging from the stump.

From this these words of the prophet Isaiah, it appears that God is promising that Jesse’s family line will have a resilience that resembles the junk trees in my garden. Despite the calamities that will happen to God’s people in Israel, as they are invaded by their Assyrian and Babylonian neighbors, a new leader will emerge, who will restore God’s people. Jesse’s descendents have already included the great King David (son of Jesse). Another great leader from this lineage is anticipated. This passage from Isaiah is viewed as a prophecy of a great Messiah (God’s anointed one). The Gospel writers, particularly Luke and Matthew, go to great lengths to show that Jesus is in David’s lineage, revealing that Jesus is God’s promised Messiah. From a Christian perspective, this Old Testament passage is viewed as pointing to Jesus Christ.

As I sit in this Advent time and hear these words from a prophet living 800 years before the birth of Jesus, I reflect on how much God’s people had hoped for a Messiah. They watched for the resilient shoot to emerge from the stump of God’s chosen people. We are blessed to live at a time when we know that God had made good on the promise of that shoot—our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Each Advent season, we watch and wait both for Jesus’ birth and the sense of Christ’s presence in our own lives.

Prayer:

God of the promises, help me to watch and wait for your shoot to emerge in my own life. Amen

Devotion for the Saturday of the First Week in Advent

THEME FOR THE WEEK: HOPE

DEVOTION FOR THE SATURDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT (DAY 7)

READING: John 12:12–15 (NRSV)

¹² The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³ So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!” ¹⁴ Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: ¹⁵ “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

REFLECTION:

Yes, this is an Advent devotion, not a Lenten one despite the journey being to Jerusalem, rather than to Bethlehem. Why in this Advent season, did the authors of “I Wonder as I Wander” select a passage usually used during Holy Week as the day’s devotion? And why, other than the fact that I said I would write devotions based on the passages in this book, am I going along with a “Palm Sunday” text, rather than a more typical Advent passage?

The reflection topic for this week is Hope, and certainly Advent is a time of hope, when we look forward to the birth of our Savior and his second coming. Our usage, in Advent of a number of Old Testament passages that predict the arrival of a Messiah are reflective of our hope for Jesus’ coming. However, when we speak of Christian hope, this hope in grounded not only in Jesus’ birth, but also his death and resurrection. Because we have witnesses that Jesus died and was raised again, there is real meat in his promises that we will share in his resurrection.

Yes, Jesus’ mother arrived in Bethlehem on donkey, just prior to his birth. But Jesus, our King and Messiah also arrived in Jerusalem on a donkey in the days leading up to his crucifixion. Do not be afraid daughters and sons, because your King is coming. The final result of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem comes on a Sunday morning with his resurrection and resultant triumph over sin, death and the grave. This journey to Jerusalem and the empty grave mean HOPE for you. Amen, Amen, Amen.

PRAYER: In this Advent season may the HOPE that arises from Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection permeate your life. Amen

Devotion for the Friday of the First Week in Advent

THEME FOR THE WEEK: HOPE

Devotion for the Friday of the First Week in Advent (day 6)

READING: Romans 5:1–11 (NRSV)

¹ Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. ³ And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. ⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. ⁸ But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. ⁹ Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. ¹¹ But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

REFLECTION:

Suffering is something most of us don’t like to think about and try to avoid, almost at all costs. Much of our medical care is designed to help us avoid suffering. We get replacement joints, have surgeries and do all kinds of preventive care to help keep suffering at bay.

But what happens when you finally have to face something that beyond a shadow of a doubt will cause you pain and suffering? What happens when the doctor gives you a diagnosis that strikes fear in your heart? What happens when the inevitable occurs and you are truly in the depths of despair and suffering?

Where do you go? Do you try to run away? Is there fear? Is there anger? Is there questioning: “Lord why did this have to happen to me?” Do you ever get to the stage of acceptance? If you do get to acceptance is it something more than numbness?

St. Paul’s explanation in this passage from Romans provides a different look at suffering. “Suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint.” According to St. Paul’s words, hope ultimately emerges from suffering. This hope emerges through the action of the Holy Spirit in conveying God’s love to you in the midst of our despair. It is not actually your suffering that generates the hope; rather, it is God’s action toward you when you are suffering that creates the hope. The God of the cross is a God who can be found in the midst of human despair. A God whose Son has been crucified is a God who comes into situations of suffering, and who brings hope into the most desperate places.

Suffering leads to hope because God cares about you enough to come down to you and bring you the hope of the resurrection. God will ultimately heal in the ways that God knows best. Hope does not disappoint!

Prayer:

Lord God, be present with us when the diagnosis is grim, when the suffering is beyond comprehension, and when the future seems filled with despair. God bring the hope of the resurrection into our lives when hope seems so distant. Amen

Devotion for the Thursday of the First Week in Advent

THEME FOR THE WEEK: HOPE

Devotion for the Thursday of the First Week in Advent (day 5)

READING: 1 Peter 5:6–11 (NRSV)

⁶ Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. ⁸ Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know that your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. ¹⁰ And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. ¹¹ To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

REFLECTION:

By my calendar, there are only 23 more shopping days until Christmas. Our social calendar (meager as it is) has at least one event each weekend from now until Christmas. There are Christmas letters to write to out-of-town friends, cards to be sent to family, wrapping to be done, a tree to be trimmed, and at least a few batches of cookies to make. In my case, I am also thinking about festival worship services to be planned, sermons to be written, shut-ins to visit, and outreach to the community.

I don’t know about you, but if I don’t take time to slow down for prayer and reflection, anxiety about unfinished projects and activities can wreak havoc on my outlook on life. Unchecked anxiety is the “devil’s playground.” If I am not careful about preventing a lapse into anxiety, the devil can take some minor upset and blow it up until it becomes larger than life. This letter of Peter counsels us to cast all our anxieties on God because God cares for us. In the same vein, this letter warns us that “the devil prowls around looking for someone to devour.”

However, there is hope for you and for me. We have the promise, reiterated in this Bible text, that God, who has called us in Christ, will restore, strengthen and support us.

Take a deep breath, pray, and envision the power of God encircling you, uplifting and strengthening you. The anxiety begins to diminish, perspective is restored and the devil is once more pushed out of your life. Blessed Advent season to you!

PRAYER

May you cast all your anxieties on a gracious God, who has promised to restore, strengthen and support you. Amen

Devotion for the Wednesday of the First Week in Advent

THEME FOR THE WEEK: HOPE

Devotion for the wednesday of the First Week in Advent

READING: 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 (NRSV)

¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. ¹⁴ For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. ¹⁵ For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. ¹⁶ For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words.

REFLECTION:

This festive holiday season can be a very difficult if you have a loved one or dear friend who died recently. Holidays, especially during the first year after experiencing the death of a loved one, can be particularly painful. As you look around, it can seem like everyone else is having a good time celebrating, while all you can do feel the pain of loss and loneliness. If a dear one died near Christmas, even if the death occurred years ago, the holiday can bring back difficult remembrances of the separation that was experienced in death.

So what does Paul mean when he writes that he does not want us to grieve as those who have no hope. We must grieve—grief is a process we have to go through after a loved one dies. I think Paul means that as Christian believers, our grief has a different character. We grieve because we deeply miss the shared life we experienced here on earth. Our dreams and plans for our life on earth have been shattered. Yet even in our grief, we have the hope of again being re-united with the person we love. As Christians, our grief is for our temporary separation—our hope is grounded in Christ’s resurrection and the promise of the resurrection of both our loved one and ourselves. Yes, grieve we must, but as Christians, our grief is tempered with the sure and certain knowledge that our separation from our loved one is temporary. We will again be re-united.

Paul also reminds us to be mindful of those around us who are grieving. We are to encourage them with the words of hope in Christ Jesus. If someone around you is grieving in this holiday season, allow them space to grieve, as they are definitely experiencing a change in their life here on earth. Their holiday season, this year, is definitely different than in past years. However, gently comfort them and remind them of the hope that we have in Christ Jesus—that hope that we will be re-united.

PRAYER:

Pray for all those who are grieving the loss of a loved one in this festive season. Pray that our hope in Christ might reach them through their grief. AMEN

Devotion for the Tuesday of the First Week in Advent

THEME FOR THE WEEK: HOPE

Devotion for the Tuesday of the First Week in Advent

READING: Romans 12:1–2, 9-12 (NRSV)

¹ I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. ⁹ Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; ¹⁰ love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. ¹¹ Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. ¹² Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.

REFLECTION:

The world sets many expectations for us—many of which may not match our own priorities and some of which simply may not be good for us. Our families set expectations, our friends have expectations, and yes, even the church sets expectations for us.

In this Advent season, which is also culturally the “Christmas Season”, we are tempted to try to live up to the expectations of others. We may have more invitations than we know what to do with. We may be expected to be happy and festive, when perhaps we have reasons for not feeling particularly festive. We may be tempted to BUY, BUY, BUY because billions of dollars are being spent to encourage us to consume endlessly, but also because we might feel that we have to meet the expectations of family and friends.

Some of expectations thrust upon us may actually be good for us. If we are feeling lonely, the encouragement to socialize may benefit us. Others of these expectations can be damaging to our fiscal and family well-being and may place inordinate pressure on us. The pressure to consume can cause us to be discontented and can distract our attention from the Advent Journey of prayer, reflection and focus on Christ’s coming.

Paul, in this letter to the Romans encourages us not to be conformed to this world, but transformed in ways that make our lives in sync with what God would want for us. Time spent in prayer and reflection is a good way to give God space to transform our lives and give us resistance to the expectations of others. Time spent is prayer opens us to the hope in Christ and enables us to rejoice in that hope.

PRAYER:

May your Advent time spent with God strengthen you, transform you and enable you to rejoice in hope. Amen

Devotion for the Monday of the First Week in Advent

THEME FOR THE WEEK: HOPE

Devotion for the MONDAY of the First Week in Advent

READING: Romans 15:1-6

¹ We who are strong ought to put up with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. ² Each of us must please our neighbor for the good purpose of building up the neighbor. ³ For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” ⁴ For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. ⁵ May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, ⁶ so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

REFLECTION

There are days when we could easily believe that we are the only ones who have ever faced trials and tribulations. We look around and from what we can tell, everyone else has it so easy. Everyone else’s life just seems to go along smoothly…But not us, we have that huge rock that has been placed in our path. And we feel so alone. No one else shares this tribulation, and if truth be told, we don’t really want anyone else to know about it.

Yet this passage from Romans offers two points of hope for us. One of these points of hope rests with our neighbor, the other rests with the Word of God in Scripture. When we are suffering, God commands our neighbor to help us—it is God’s purpose for our neighbor to help us—both for the sake of our neighbor and for our sake. God does not want us to suffer alone, and God knows that our neighbor’s life is enriched when he or she is able to help us.

In this letter to the Romans, Paul points out that our other point of hope rests in the experience of others as recorded in Scripture. By the encouragement of God’s Word in Scripture we are given hope. God shows us through the interactions with the people of the Bible that God is a faithful God who does not abandon us when we face trials and tribulations.

Each of us will have a day when we are discouraged or filled with despair because of some burden we are carrying or some trial we are facing. Through our relationships with our neighbor and with God we are granted hope and the strength to overcome.

PRAYER:

May the God of hope strengthen you through the hearing of God’s Word and through the love and care of your neighbor. Amen

Devotion for the Sunday of the First Week in Advent

THEME FOR THE WEEK: HOPE

Devotion for the Sunday of the First Week in Advent

READING: 2 Corinthians 3:4–18 (NRSV)

⁴ Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, ⁶ who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. ⁷ Now if the ministry of death, chiseled in letters on stone tablets, came in glory so that the people of Israel could not gaze at Moses’ face because of the glory of his face, a glory now set aside, ⁸ how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory? ⁹ For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, much more does the ministry of justification abound in glory! ¹⁰ Indeed, what once had glory has lost its glory because of the greater glory; ¹¹ for if what was set aside came through glory, much more has the permanent come in glory! ¹² Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness, ¹³ not like Moses, who put a veil over his face to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of the glory that was being set aside. ¹⁴ But their minds were hardened. Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. ¹⁵ Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; ¹⁶ but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

REFLECTION:

Some days we wake up wondering if we can even get out of bed, much less do what needs to be done that day. Maybe it is just bone weary tiredness—exhaustion from just doing too much the previous day. Or maybe it is soul weariness that makes us want to pull the covers up over our heads and ignore the morning light. On those mornings, of body or soul weariness, we wake, feeling that we just can’t depend on ourselves.

Questions linger in our minds such as: “What HOPE is there?” “Why should I keep going on?” This complex passage from 2 Corinthians gives us three points of hope to deal with those times of questioning uncertainty. First in verse 5 we hear the words, “not that we are competent of ourselves,…but our competence is from God.” Two, Paul tells us that “because we have such a hope (from God), we act with great boldness.” Lastly, in verse 18, we are told how we are being transformed by the Spirit.

From this passage, I draw the hope that I am not in this life alone; I not depending only on my competence. It is God’s competence, far beyond my understanding, that keeps me going. When I feel weary or just down in the dumps, I have the hope that is grounded in Christ Jesus—the hope that anything I need to do to live out life in God’s covenant will be supported by the power of God. God will transform me to do what God expects me to do.

PRAYER:

On this first day of Advent, may the light of the single candle burn brightly in your heart as you look toward the hope of Christ’s coming and feel the transforming power of the Spirit. Amen