Advent: Preparing for Jesus!

Advent is a time of preparation, characteristically with a time of prayer and fasting as we await the Christ child coming within our midst Four candles are put within a wreath with one in the middle. Each week a candle is lit. This week the first week of advent was purple for hope.

Hope is sometimes seen as elusive, yet, for those who hope, it is a very tangilble thing. In fact we know faith to be the substance of things hoped for – when all those particles of hope come together, they form into a substance called faith!

Scripture tells us in Psalm 130:5:

This is why I wait upon you, expecting your breakthrough, for your Word brings me hope.Psalm 130:(TPT)

Think of this, hope produces a pathway that leads us to an expectant breakthrough, because it flows from God’s Word.

God wants us to hope in HIs word, for “all the promises of God are yea and amen to the glory of God the Father in us”, (2 Corinthians 1:20 KJV) We are given energy to face challenges, because we hope in HIs Word; we are given power to defeat our enemies, because we hope in HIs Word; we find wisdom to discern those thijngs we should hope for.

Helen Keller made this statement: Hope is active, dynamic, transformative. Hopes sees the invisible, feels the intangible, does the impossible!

It is important to recognize that biblical hope is more than a simple wish; it entails certainty based on God’s demonstration of faithfulness to HIs people. As we reflect upon hope in our own lives, we maintain hope by looking back at the things in our lives that we thought were impossible, and know that those things that we hope for now, though they seem impossible can be obtained just like those previous ones.

For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man sees, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that which we see not, then do with patience wait for it. Likewise the Spirit helps our infirmities; for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit itself makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:24-25

This Christmas, Keep Hope Alive – in your heart!

Maria