Advent is a time for waiting and hoping, a time of longing for the promises of God to be fulfilled.
Christmas is the time when we remember that God came down to a broken and hurting world, stepping into the mess to bring us hope, peace, love and joy.
You are warmly invited to use the daily Bible verses and reflections to expectantly journey through Advent as we ponder Finding Hope.
Week 1 – Hope for all God’s people
The Bible talks a lot about Hope, but it isn’t the wishful thinking, fingers crossed, hold your breath sort of hope we might be used to. Instead Christian Hope is described as the ‘confident expectation of what God has promised.’ As we journey through this Advent we will look in turn at how Christian Hope can help us to find peace, love and joy. We begin with the wonderful message of the gospel that Hope is for all.
Day 1 – What are you hoping for?
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long. Psalm 25:5
Advent is the start of the church year, a time of new beginnings. Traditionally like Lent it is a season of preparation and of waiting. Hope can seem to be distant in seasons of waiting.
Perhaps there are things we are hoping God might change for us, situations in which we’d like him to intervene? If Christian Hope is the confident expectation of God’s promises, I wonder what your hopes are for this Advent season? In what ways would you like to be changed?
Why not write your hope for Advent down and use it in prayer this week.
Day 2 – Hope Heals
Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Matt 11:28
How might hope heal? By pointing us forward to things yet to come hope can help us to put the past behind. In this sense having hope can ease hurts, sorrows, defeats and wounds.
Doctors suggest that hope helps physical healing and it is recognised as a major help to psychological healing and recovery. Advice from The Royal College of Psychiatrists is that belonging to a religious community increases hope which in turn can reduce stress, depression and low mood. In what ways have you experienced hope as a method of healing?
Day 3 – Hope Overcomes
You are my refuge and my shield, I have put my hope in your word. Psalm 119:114
Hope helps us to set priorities. When we lose hope life can feel overwhelming, existing from one thing to another. Hope gives us a changed perspective on life. Christian Hope assures us of God’s goodness and means we can find our identity, our calling and our purpose in God, it reminds us that we are important and a priority to God. As we prioritise our relationship with God he speaks into our lives and brings hope. We may find ways such as prayer, reading the Bible, acts of service helpful in living in the confident expectation of what Christ has promised. Today, why not read your favourite Bible verse and reflect on what aspects of God it reveals to you?
Day 4 – Hope Prioritises
You are my refuge and my shield, I have put my hope in your word. Psalm 119:114
Hope helps us to set priorities. When we lose hope life can feel overwhelming, existing from one thing to another. Hope gives us a changed perspective on life. Christian Hope assures us of God’s goodness and means we can find our identity, our calling and our purpose in God, it reminds us that we are important and a priority to God. As we prioritise our relationship with God he speaks into our lives and brings hope. We may find ways such as prayer, reading the Bible, acts of service helpful in living in the confident expectation of what Christ has promised. Today, why not read your favourite Bible verse and reflect on what aspects of God it reveals to you?
Day 5 – Hope Energises
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
Christian Hope can be a source of power and energy for us. J.John the Christian Evangelist put it this way “Hope helps get us out of bed, has us smiling through the day, boosts our morale, enables us to dismiss criticism and takes us home still able to hum a melody.” We all need hope. Christian Hope, confidence in a God who cares for us and loves us. Hope can become a rock in troubled times and fire in our belly to drive us on. St Paul wrote to the Roman church praying that God would by his Holy Spirit make them overflow with hope! What might it look like to overflow with hope? How could that impact our homes, churches and communities?
Day 6 – Everlasting Hope
As for me, I will always have hope, I will praise you more and more. Psalm 71:14
Needing hope is all well and good but we need a hope that is proven, that has been tried and tested over the years and found to be reliable through both good and bad times. We need a hope that is unlimited, that can handle our moral failure, our problems in relationships, health and finance, and all the thousand things that life-and death- can throw at it. We need a hope that is inexhaustible; a hope with sufficient resources to handle, not just our problems, but those of our family, our friends and everybody else!
We need a hope that is everlasting, something that will not just work today and tomorrow but for years, indeed for the countless age of eternity.
Day 7 – Relatable Hope
And His name will be the Hope of all the world. Matthew 12:21
We need a hope that we can relate to; a hope that isn’t just a principle to admire but a person who sympathises and understands us, a person who we can know and love. We need a source of hope that heals, overcomes, priorities energises, is everlasting AND is relatable. Those are the very toughest of requirements. When I look around to find who can meet them I find myself coming back again to the one who taught the highest wisdom, knew God as his father, forgave sins, healed the sick, raised the dead and who triumphed over death itself. When I need hope I know that there’s only one person big enough for all that life can throw at me. That’s “Jesus Christ, our hope.” (1 Timothy 1:1) In what ways do you know Jesus Christ as a source of hope?
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