Wednesday, December 6, 2017 Advent Week One! Hope! Day 3: Hope in Waiting on God

Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Advent Week One! Hope!

Day 3: Hope in Waiting on God

Scripture:

Psalm 39:7

But for you, O Lord, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.

Psalm 130:5-6

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.

Psalm 119:81

My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word.

Luke 2:25-32

²⁵ And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. ²⁶ And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. ²⁷ So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, ²⁸ he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:

²⁹ “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;
³⁰ For my eyes have seen Your salvation
³¹ Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
³² A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”

Devotional:

Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

(Traditional Hymn)

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Oh, friends, the hope of the Christmas season! There is no other time of year when many homes, ours included, are filled with the songs of adoration of our King. When else can our daily routines cause us to see the words “Peace on Earth” on public signs, or hear the Truths of the Gospel sung on the sound system at the grocery store? While many also seem unaffected by the beauty and the glory of this season, many also turn their hearts toward the Lord. For those of us who live with daily expectancy and hope of the soon return of our King, this time of year can stir our hearts in believing that He will soon again establish His throne among us for all eternity.

Of course, in the everyday of our lives, it can be challenging to keep our focus on the soon return of the King. The waiting is most likely simmering on the back burner of our lives as the concerns of our responsibilities take our needed focus. While it isn’t genuinely practical for us to be in a constant state of expectant waiting, perhaps we can add a little something to that simmering pot of waiting to infuse the hope of His reality into our homes! Like the aroma of mulled cider wafting about our home, the aroma of our hope can bubble forth like Simeon’s as we bring the focus of our Lord’s coming to the forefront.

Some simple things that we can do to add to the atmosphere in our homes might be to simply be intentional about the music we are choosing. I love the fun, traditional American carols that send my four-year-old and her friends leaping and dancing as we sing “Jingle Bells” and “Frosty the Snowman!” I got to join her in her classroom with my guitar last week, and the kids had a blast with my little jingle bell wrist holders, and singing about Rudolph’s shiny nose. When it came time to settle down and sing “Away in a Manger,” as always the shift is notable. The shining eyes, the rapt faces and far-off gazes are inspiring. The hope of the coming of our Lord is like this: childlike, innocent, and pure. We can add spices to the simmering cider in our homes as we participate in the worship of our King through song.

Another way we can focus on the hope of waiting for His return is in sharing the daily Advent readings with our family. This can be worked in to our regular routines. We don’t have to do all the crafty, involved, or overwhelming projects if we don’t have time! This year I’m a little too sick to do a lot of crafting, so we are simply using the Advent calendar as our Bible story for the night during family devotions, a part of our family routine that is already in our daily schedule. Maybe for you, it’s in the car at school dropoff or at the breakfast or dinner table. In simple, organic ways we can add a cinnamon stick to the pot and allow that beautiful and inspiring fragrance to fill our homes with the hope of believing, He is coming soon!

Prayer:

Thanksgiving:

Long expected Jesus, I thank You for Your gift of coming to the earth to save us. I praise You, Father, for Your great and mighty plan of salvation, crafted from the foundations of the earth, that we might be restored to full fellowship with You. Even so, Come, Lord Jesus! We wait for You.

Confession:

God, I thank You that You are faithful to receive my daily confession at the foot of the Cross. I bring my heart to You as one who needs Your touch. I confess that I need Your intervention, and I confess my desire to be pleasing before You, cleansed and whole. The act of daily confession is a place of safety and security in preserving our intimacy. I thank You that I do not have to grovel for Your forgiveness, but that I receive grace and forgiveness at a deeper level as I open new places in my heart to You. (Take time to allow the Lord to reveal areas needing confession and as an act of dependence, release those things to Him. Mine today: I confess my difficulty receiving help when I need it. Help me to be open to receiving from You and from others. Help me to release the control that drives this in me.)

Supplication:

(In typical order, supplication for self is usually the last point of prayer. For parents, it can be hard to remember to pray for our own needs, so in this setting I place supplication before intercession. Remember, we need to be whole to be available to serve!) Lord, I lift my need to You. I ask You to intervene in my heart and life. I recognize that my challenges and needs are Yours to fix and I place them before You. Again, help me to release control and surrender my needs to You before trying to fix them myself without Your help. I love You, Lord, and I thank You that You have a great and abiding love for me. (Take time to journal answers to prayer, victories, progress, needs (including ones that are ongoing!), and requests. Mine today: I am still quite sick with bronchitis and needing support to care for my children today. Thank You for sending help in the form of generous friends and neighbors. Again, help me to receive and rest when relief is given. Heal my body and keep my family well.)

Intercession:

I lift my children to You today. I thank You for the blessing that they are. I pray that You will give me a right heart and attitude toward them and help me to flow in wisdom by Your Holy Spirit as I guide and instruct them in righteousness today. I pray that they would each have a true and abiding faith in Jesus Christ, and that the Fruit of the Spirit will blossom as they flow in Him. I pray that they will also live the disciplines of repentance, service, and prayer in addition to growing as disciples throughout their lifetime. Let the Word of Christ dwell richly in their hearts and cause them to flow with gratitude (Colossians 3:16). Let the spice of the Christmas season flavor their lives and interactions, and may they have a richer and more abiding relationship with You as they are shown and reminded of Your great love to come to Earth for us in human form. (Take time to lift each child in your family. Be sure to focus on each individual. Journal progress, praises, victories, and joys. List needs, concerns, and serious incidents. Lift them in prayer to the Lord. Pour your heart out to God. Add to this list throughout the day as an act of surrendering worry to Him. Chloe today: She has slept 11 out of the past 13 nights without waking us up! 1 of those nights was genuine fear from a nightmare, so we were able to add a sticker to her sleep success chart. Thank You, Lord! She is also growing so much in her relationships and how she responds to upset and disappointment. I pray that she will continue to increase in her choice to sleep all night (she is showing us it is indeed a CHOICE not to scream for us when the motivation is right), and that she will also decrease her over-reactions to disappointments and not getting her way. I pray that empathy and kindness would have deep impacts on her behavior and interactions. For Christian today: He had a successful BM in the toilet yesterday! He is still not initiating urine or BM, but this is great progress. We continue to pray for initiation in the bathroom, and that he will be in underwear and out of pull-ups. We do not have a deadline for You, Lord. We place the timing in Your hand and continue to implore You that he will have this skill as soon as You choose it. We are also SO excited that last night, he was spelling his name with only verbal and air-drawing prompts!! Our son can spell! He can learn! He can increase his learning! This is soooo exciting! We had a little celebration together with him. Goodness….what if he catches up academically???? I want to extend my faith that You can cause even this to happen!! I am so profoundly excited that he is growing and learning! I pray for You to cause his delays to be reversed and for him to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony these developmental and cognitive delays that You can so easily reverse and change!!! Nothing is impossible for You, Lord! Help me to fight the defeatist lies of the enemy that this has to be the way it is. God, You are the Almighty. You are also the Lover of our souls, intimately acquainted with grief and sorrow and You desire to walk alongside us as we persevere and press onward. Be our son’s advocate, Lord.)

Thanksgiving and Consecration:

Again, I thank You that You are the One Who will cause these circumstances to be woven into a tapestry of grace and by Your Truth and by Your love we will be made into Your image as we abide in You. Bless Your holy Name, Lord. Bless Your holy Name. You are Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Emmanuel—God with us. Glory to God. You are worthy! Seal this time of prayer with protection, and be our front and rear guard today as we set forth. In Jesus’ Name I pray, amen!

Blessing and Benediction:

Hebrews 13:20-21

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever.  Amen.

God bless you as you simmer with the spice of this Christmas season today!