Waiting on Hope

Joy Bannen

Description

This Advent Devotional is easy to read while still challenging your mind and heart. If you enjoy Jen Wilkins, this devotional is for you.

This devotional will take you through the 25 days of Advent. In this busy time of year, it is important to pause and reflect on the meaning of Christmas, to clear our minds of calendars and to do lists to focus on the reason why we celebrate Christmas and the spiritual importance of this season.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Spiritual Growth
• Christian Living
• Philosophie et théologie
• Christmas

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 22 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664273931
• Langue: English

Extrait

WAITING ON Hope


An Advent Devotional





JOY BANNEN









Copyright © 2022 Joy Bannen.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.



WestBow Press
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Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-7392-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-7393-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022913991



WestBow Press rev. date: 09/21/2022



Contents
Introduction

Week 1 Hope
Week 2 Preparation
Week 3 Joy
Week 4 Love
Week 5 Christ

Final Thoughts



Introduction
A Celebration of Advent
Waiting is hard! That is one universal truth that people from all walks of life can agree on. We spend much of our lives agonizing over waiting. Waiting on a promotion that will better support a growing family. Waiting to hold a long-desired baby. Waiting on a test result to find out if the latest treatments have worked against a devastating disease. Waiting at the airport for a dearly missed loved one. The irony of waiting is that we live in a fast-paced, fast food, fast-talking world. We live in a society where one does not have to wait for a letter to arrive by post to receive an update on a loved one deployed oceans away; we can call or FaceTime them to talk to them instantly. We do not have to spend hours, and even days, prepping for a holiday meal; we can place an order at a restaurant or grocery store ahead of time to have dinner and all the trimmings delivered to our home. We don’t even have to wait in line for the coffee we were too busy to make at home. We can order our three-pump, venti vanilla latte with an extra shot of espresso from our phone on the drive to the coffeehouse, then skip the line, skip the small talk, and go about our day without any wait.
Maybe you grew up celebrating Advent. Maybe you had a family Advent calendar or tradition as a child you still remember. I did not grow up celebrating Christ’s birth with Advent. Having a Christmas Eve birthday, I grew up sharing my red velvet birthday cake with Jesus every year. We sang happy birthday to Jesus, and every Christmas morning, before we opened a single present, we sat down with our homemade sausage balls and apple cinnamon tea to listen as our dad read the Christmas story found in Luke 2:1–20.
As an adult with children of my own, I am struck by the fact that Christmas is not about the perfectly decorated trees or neatly wrapped packages under the tree. I did not want my girls spending hours writing their laundry list of toys and other things they wanted. I did not want to drive my family crazy by stressing out over having special meals and forced traditions. I wanted my girls to grow up understanding we do not have Christmas so we can see our second and third cousins once a year or so we can greedily open gift after gift. We have Christmas because the all-powerful creator God loved us so much that He decided to send His one and only Son to earth in the form of an innocent baby. We have Christmas because God sent this perfect infant to live among us, to show God to the world, and, ultimately, to die an agonizing death on a cross meant for a murderer, only to rise again three days later so that we sinful and lost humans could one day live with Him in heaven. Praise God ! That is something to celebrate! That is something worth anticipating and waiting for!
My husband comes from a Catholic family, and, in our early years of dating, I heard several references to Advent, such as Advent calendars and Advent wreaths. At first, I thought it was a Catholic tradition to countdown to Christmas. However, as I became more aware of the meaning of word advent, I started noticing Protestant Advent devotionals and Advent scripture reading plans. I realized it was not just a tradition for Catholics but an observance for all believers. I discovered a beautiful reminder that was far deeper than just a countdown to opening presents. The word Advent comes from the Latin word adventus, which means coming. Adventus is a Latin translation of the Greek word parousia, which means the Second Coming as used in Matthew 24:27, “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” The purpose behind Advent is to prepare our hearts to celebrate the first Advent of our Savior in the fully human form of a baby, and to prepare our hearts for the anticipated return of Christ, our Lord and King, in the Second Advent.
Our focus in this season is crucial. The world is sending constant signals to distract us from the true purpose of Christmas. The ads and decorations start going up as early as Halloween in some stores. Our eyes are pulled from the baby Jesus by early Black Friday deals and secret Cyber Monday specials. Our attention is turned away from anticipating the Second Advent of our Savior by thoughts and plans of getting together with in-laws and other extended family and friends. We are easily distracted by long to-do lists and dozens upon dozens of “holiday” cards. (Because even saying “Merry Christmas” has now become offensive during the Christ mas season, but that’s another topic for another time.)
This devotional is organized to follow the order of the candles in an Advent wreath, which has five candles. Four candles sit around the outside, and one candle sits in the center. The four outside candles represent hope, preparation (some traditions say peace), joy, and love. The candle in the center represents Christ. Tradition states that you light one of the outside candles each Sunday before Christmas, starting four Sundays before Christmas. The first Sunday you light the hope candle; the second Sunday you relight the hope candle, and then light the preparation candle; and so on. Then on Christmas day, you relight all four of the outside candles, and, at last, you light the Christ candle in the center. With that in mind, we will spend five days reflecting on each candle. As you read through these paragraphs and scriptures to prepare your home and yourself for Christmas, keep the following questions in the forefront of your mind: How will my anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ affect my focus this Christmas season? How can Advent help me keep the focus on Christ my Savior this season? Is Christ the center of my life?
Let’s celebrate the birth of Christ and the Second Coming of our Savior together!
Behold, I am coming soon. (Revelation 22:7a)






Week 1
Hope
In hope he [Abraham] believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”
—Romans 4:18–22
A braham is an exemplary figure in the scripture of the strength one gains through faith and hope. He had realized by the ripe old age of one hundred that his faith and hope for things not yet seen brought glory to God.