Hope is a beautiful emotion in our world, it allows the beggar to hope that better days are ahead, the single mom to hope that life will work out, the laid off worker to still hope for a better job, and the family barely making it to continue to hope and believe they’ll make it!
It allows us a way to remember the hope God offers to our lost and dying world in Jesus Christ.
Galatians 4:4-8 says:
“But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.”
Over this Advent, we pray that hope will rise up in our spirits in a tangible and life-giving way.
The Meaning of Advent
The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word adventus, which means “coming.” Advent in the 4th and 5th century was a time of preparation for the baptism of new Christians. Christians would spend 40 days in prayer and fasting to prepare for the celebration that accompanied the baptism of new believers.
Over time, advent was connected to the coming of Christ. Originally Christians used this term to reference Christ’s second coming, but by the Middle Ages Advent was connected to Christ’s first coming that we celebrate at Christmas.
Today, we celebrate Advent over the four weeks leading up to Christmas each year. This year we begin advent on November 29th and end this season of prayerful anticipation on December 24th.
Advent is an invitation to take our focus off of the crazy hustle that can often be associated with the Christmas season and that often threatens to produce more stress.
Advent is our chance to focus our thoughts on the gift God has given us in His son Jesus who stepped down from Heaven and took the form of a man so that we might believe.
The tradition for the first Sunday of Advent includes lighting the candle of hope.
This candle of hope symbolizes promises delivered through the prophets from God as well as the hope we have in Christ.
God crafted a great rescue plan that he lays out in Scripture throughout the old testament and the prophets. This plan foretells years in advance the arrival of Christ and what the Messiah would accomplish.
The Bible also gives us a glimpse of the future and promises that Jesus will come back again and when He does it will be as the conquering King.
This first Sunday of Advent we read, pray, and reflect on the hope God’s plan gives us (foretold by the prophets and fulfilled by the life and death of Christ), and we meditate on the promise of Christ’s coming glory-filled return.
3 Suggested Scripture Readings for the First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 64:1-5
O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence—as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him. You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways…
Psalm 80:1-7
Please listen, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph’s descendants like a flock. O God, enthroned above the cherubim, display your radiant glory to Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh. Show us your mighty power. Come to rescue us! Turn us again to yourself, O God. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved. O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies, how long will you be angry with our prayers? You have fed us with sorrow and made us drink tears by the bucketful. You have made us the scorn of neighboring nations. Our enemies treat us as a joke. Turn us again to yourself, O God of Heaven’s Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved.
Psalm 80:17-19
But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand, the one whom you made strong for yourself. Then we will never turn back from you; give us life, and we will call on your name. Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.
A Prayer for the First Sunday of Advent
Abba, let hope arise in our hearts! Let us lift up our eyes up to see that you alone are where our hope comes from. Help us Lord to shake off the anxiety, the discouragements, and all the multiple distractions that have filled this year. May we take time to practice the pause to remember that we have hope in you. You alone are our Hope.
You know the end of our story, you see us as we are, and we give thanks because you have promised that it will be a victorious ending! Give us the grace we need to end this year with great Joy!
We invite your Holy Spirit into this beautiful season. Renew our sense of anticipation! Lwt us return to an eagerness, awaiting Jesus to come again.
More than anything Lord, we ask that you be glorified in all we reflect on and do!
In the mighty name of Jesus.
Amen.
Our Walking Free Class starts Wednesday June 21st at 6pm at