Advent Week One: HOPE—Preparing for CHRISTmas 2020
Advent Week One began yesterday—Sunday, November 29 with the HOPE candle.
HOPE—confidence in God and His Word--represented by a purple candle—is also sometimes referred to as the Prophecy Candle, recognizing the truth that God is faithful. It is noteworthy that of the hundreds of instances of the word “hope” in Scripture, the highest frequency (besides Psalms) is the book of Job—which we usually recall as a book about suffering! Jeremiah—known as the “weeping prophet” also mentions hope often. There is something about hope that transcends difficulty, uncertainty, even grief and suffering. It is essential to our very lives. And, it is provided by God, in Jesus. What an apt way to begin the first week of Advent.
God of hope, I look to you with an open heart and yearning spirit. During this Advent season, I will keep alert and awake, listening for your word and keeping to your precepts. My hope is in you. --Matthew Kelly
A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes...and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent. --Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Advent season is that time when we seek to, in a manner of speaking, mute our memory of what has already happened, that we might brighten our joy that it happened. We leave the already of His advent to taste the bitter of the not yet. We, in short, go back, that we might look forward to His coming. --R. C. Sproul
Defining Biblical HOPE Reflect on the following passages—what do they say to you about HOPE?
Psalm 25:5 Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
Psalm 31:24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
Psalm 33:20 We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.
Psalm 33:22 May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.
Psalm 42:5 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
Psalm 71:5 For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth.
Psalm 71:14 As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.
Psalm 119:147 I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word.
Psalm 130:5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.
Psalm 147:11 the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.
Isaiah 40:31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Lamentations 3:19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 25 The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Micah 7:7 But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Matthew 12:15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. 16 He warned them not to tell others about him. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: 18 “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. 19 He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory. 21 In his name the nations will put their hope.”
Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 8:22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.
2 Thessalonians 2:16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
Hebrews 6:16 People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Hope is intimately related to trust—trust in a faithful God, which transcends circumstances, combined with faith, helps us persevere, knowing that He is in control, and that He has (and, thus, we have) overcome. This Sunday of Advent calls out the Hope that God will fulfill His promises—as He did in Jesus…and will when Jesus returns.
Many Old Testament prophecies pointed to the coming Messiah—the Savior of the world. We, too are waiting, in a sense like the Israelite slaves in Egypt and the Jews in exile in Babylon—this time for Jesus, The Messiah—who came once as a baby in a manger--to return and set all things right.
Old Testament readings: what do these say about the coming Messiah and what kind of Kingdom He brings?
Isaiah 11:1-10 The Branch From Jesse
Isaiah 40:1-5 Comfort for God’s People
New Testament readings: what does the Luke passage say about John the Baptist, especially relative to his relationship with Jesus? What does the Romans passage say about hope, Jesus, and fulfillment of prophecy?
Luke 1:5-25 The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold
Romans 15:4-13
Reflect:
What does the hope, provided by God in Jesus mean to you?
Take time now to worship the Lord of all HOPE by listening to Chris Tomlin’s worship song Adore.
Spend time in prayer, talking with God…and listening to Him…about HOPE.
For the rest of Week One, read and reflect on these Scriptures. What do you notice about hope? What do they say about the coming Messiah—Jesus and about God and His promises?
Old Testament readings
Genesis 3:8-15
Deuteronomy 18:15-19
Psalm 122 A song of ascents.
Isaiah 2:1-5 The Mountain of the Lord
Psalm 22
New Testament readings
James 5:7-8 Patience in Suffering
Matthew 24:36-44 The Day and Hour Unknown
Next week: PEACE
Shirley Giles Davis, author of the God. Gifts. You. Your Unique Calling and Design workbook, Your Unique Design Class Guide, Your Unique Design Facilitator Guide, and Gifts-Calling-Purpose blog, is a consultant, coach, facilitator who has worked with faith-based organizations, nonprofit agencies, and leaders in a diversity of fields for over 30 years. She has also been EquipConnectServe Director at her 1,200 member church since 1999. Contact Shirley.
Photo © Shirley Giles Davis, All Rights Reserved.
Bookmark of snowflake photos—credit: Annie Crawford.