Advent devotionals
1: Jesus Gives Us Hope
The apostle Paul wrote, “We hope for something we have not yet seen, and we patiently wait for it” (Romans 8:25, NIV unless noted).
In the days of Caesar Augustus, the Jewish people hoped that the Messiah would come to save them from the Romans. They didn’t like to pay taxes to the Romans, certainly, but it was more than that. The Roman rule was also a slap in the face to their belief in the one true God. Here they were, worshipping God as best they could, singing songs about how he rewards people who trust in him, how he rescues his people from unbelievers, and yet the unbelievers ruled in the land God had supposedly given to the Jews.
So the people hoped for a Messiah. They had faith that he would eventually come, but they hoped it would be soon, in their lifetimes. And at last, he did come. He was born in Bethlehem, placed in an animal feed trough, and he was given the name Jesus, meaning “God saves.” He was a helpless baby, and soon, this would-be Savior had to be rescued from the soldiers sent by Herod.
The Messiah had come, but few people knew it. The Jewish people were still ruled by Rome. Nothing had changed, it seemed. But the most important change of all had occurred, without them even knowing it: Jesus had come.
And Jesus grew, and he was baptized by John, and he taught large crowds of people, and he did many miracles, and then the Romans killed him. Nothing had changed, it seemed. But a few people knew better. They had seen the Messiah again. Death itself had been conquered, and they had reason to hope for the salvation not just of the Jewish people, but also the Romans themselves, and the Greeks and the Persians and the peoples of Africa, Asia, and even of lands they didn’t even know existed, like where many of us live today.
Sometimes it looks like nothing has changed. World history is full of invasions, of conquests, of killings, of empires rising and falling, chaos and death. There have been black plagues, flu epidemics, covid and cancer. There have been people who lie, cheat, steal, and kill. And even in the best of times, there is death.
Even so, we have hope – we have reason to hope – Jesus gives us reason to hope. Without him, we have no hope, but with him, we have hope that can sustain us in times of terror, in times of tiredness, in seasons of sorrow and disappointment. We do not have all the things that Jesus has promised – the very definition of “hope” is that it’s something we don’t yet have – but Jesus gives us reason to believe that the things we hope for will in time be realized.
War will cease. Cancer will be beaten. Disease epidemics will be no more. Death itself will come to an end. We know that there is something better yet to come, and it’s because of Jesus. We hope, and we wait, for something that we do not yet see, because we see Jesus, the hope of the entire world.
2: Jesus Gives Us Peace
The apostle Paul wrote, “since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
One of the things that Jesus gives us is peace – in this verse, it’s peace with God. Peace means much more than the absence of war – the Hebrew word shalom means “well-being.” It means being comfortable in God’s presence.
It’s like the Old Testament picture of people sitting under a grapevine and a fig tree, with an abundance of good things and with no fears about it being taken away. When we have peace with God, it means not just that he stopped doing bad stuff to us, but that we can relax. We can enjoy his presence; we can be content, as one of the psalms says, like a weaned child sitting with its mother. Life is good, we might say.
God wasn’t really out to get us, we find out. He is the one who sent Jesus to save us. The peace that we enjoy with God is more of a change in the way we think, than in the way that God thinks about us. It means that we have peace of mind, because Jesus has done whatever it takes to show us that God is on our side; he wants the best for us. Jesus paid the extreme price so we would know that for sure. We can enjoy his presence, and not be fearful that he’s suddenly going to turn against us because we did something that he didn’t like, or didn’t do something that he wanted.
God still has standards, and there are certain things that he wants us to do, and certain things to avoid, but none of these things will change his overall attitude towards us, that he wants us to experience good things instead of bad. He wants us to relax, to be content in his presence, like sitting under his vine and fig tree. Life with God is good – it is not a life of worry. 1 Timothy 6 tells us that God richly provides us things for our enjoyment. That’s peace and wellbeing.
Peace with God means peace within ourselves. We are not filled with internal conflict, but we can go forward in confidence. It should also lead us to peace with other people, with our spouse, with our children, our co-workers, our neighbors. Now, not everyone is willing to be peaceable with us, but “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18). Don’t seek to harm them, or take vengeance. Be considerate of their needs and feelings – that’s basically what it means to love our neighbors. Jesus helps bring us peace in that way, too.
We also want world peace, for Ukrainians and Russians to sit together, to laugh together, to love one another. We’d like for Israelis and Palestinians to enjoy eating together, sharing with one another the fruits of their vines and fig trees, to not just stop shooting each other, but to actually appreciate each other. We pray for peace in Sudan, in Venezuela, Afghanistan, and Kosovo. We pray for peace in New York, San Bernardino, and Guadalajara. We pray for peace in our schools, our workplaces, and our homes.
We cannot bring world peace by bigger missiles, smarter bombs, or more weapons. It can come only through Jesus, and it starts by us accepting the peace that he gives us with God. We are comfortable with God’s love for us. Jesus is peace, not only for us, but also for the whole world.
3: Jesus Gives Us Joy
An angel told the shepherds near Bethlehem, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10).
Unfortunately, Herod sent some soldiers to kill him. Later, many of the townspeople of Nazareth tried to kill him. On various occasions people took up stones to kill him, and eventually a crowd of people clamored for his crucifixion. It did not seem like “great joy” for some of those people.
Well, it should have been, because Jesus came to save those people, too. They had something to rejoice about, but they didn’t know it.
The news, by itself, cannot cause joy. Joy comes only when the news is perceived as good. Not everyone receives the news about Jesus with joy, even though they should, because he is their Savior, too.
Unfortunately, even some Christians don’t seem very happy about it. They are reluctant converts, perhaps convinced of a truth that they really don’t like. They don’t enjoy being a Christian, but are afraid of being anything else.
Paul commands us, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). Now, we might think that joy is not the sort of thing that can be commanded; either I am happy, or I am not, and I can’t just flip a switch and suddenly be happy.
Most people, I think, would rather be happy than sad, so why would Paul command people to rejoice?
Well, it is a choice. Most people have both good things in their lives as well as bad things. Some people focus on the bad things, and some focus on the good things. When Paul tells us to rejoice, he is saying that we need to focus on the good things. Notice what he writes a few verses later: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
There may be some complaint-worthy things in our life, and it’s OK to pray about those, but Paul tells us to make a conscious effort to think about the praiseworthy things, and when we do that, we will find things to rejoice about.
When Jesus came, there was good news of great joy for all the people, but he didn’t bring some magic substance called “joy.” No, this is really a figure of speech for “he brought something that we can rejoice about.” He brought good news about something that is really good for us.
He brought salvation; he gives us the joy of knowing that God loves us, wants us, and wants to live with us. We are valued, each of us, by the king of the universe! He is giving us an eternity of joy, and that gives us something to rejoice about right now.
4: Jesus Gives Us Love
“God loved the world in this way,” John 3:16 tells us: “He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (CSB). First John 3:16 tells us more: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (NIV).
The supreme example of love is Jesus’ willingness to die for us. But this did not start at Gethsemane, nor Nazareth, and not even Bethlehem. Revelation 13:8 tells us that Jesus was “slain from the creation of the world.” When God created the world, he knew way back then that his Son would be killed. He knew it would be because people rejected him, resented him, didn’t want what he offered. He knew it would be painful, emotionally and physically, and he created us anyway.
Why? Because of love. God loved us even before we were born, even before the world existed. Love, by definition, means that he considered us more important than his own comfort and safety. He knew we would not be worthy of his love, but he still knew that we would be worth the sacrifice of his Son. God esteems us so highly not for what we have done, but for what we will be in Christ. God eagerly wants us to live, to accept what he gives us in Christ. He wants to live with us.
Revelation 21:3 says, in a literal translation, “The tabernacle of God is with humanity, and he will tabernacle with them.” His tent will be in our midst, and he will tent with us. It does not say that we will live with him (although that is true), but that he will live with us. He comes to us where we are. That’s an example of love.
The same Greek word is used in John 1:14 to refer to the birth of Jesus: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” The birth of Jesus is a picture of God’s love for us, that he wants to be with us. He knew that he would be rejected the first time, but he came anyway, because he could see beyond that to the greater result in the future, that he would return and be accepted with great joy.
The thread that runs through the entire story, that drives the entire story, is God’s love for people who at first didn’t even exist, and later, who returned his love with hatred and murder. But he sees beyond that, and he knows how it will all turn out for even more love, joy and peace. He wants to live with us, and he’s willing to make all sorts of sacrifices to make it possible. This is the kind of love that will make the future world so wonderful. We get a glimpse of that in Easter, we get a glimpse of that in Christmas, we get a glimpse of that even in the love that one person has for another, because even that love is a gift of God who made us all to be a bit like himself.
Jesus is God’s greatest gift to humanity, and it is inseparable from his love. God wants us to share his love with one another, and to share Jesus, too, because it is in Jesus that we learn the most about what love is, and in his love God shares Jesus with us. Jesus gives us love.
Michael Morrison, GCS News, Winter 2023