This coming Sunday marks the first Sunday in Advent. At our church, we will again light a candle each Sunday leading up to Christmas and focus our attention on what it means to wait and prepare to celebrate the advent of Jesus entering our world. I was getting out the Advent wreath and setting it up and placing the candles in readiness for this special way of recalling what Jesus, God’s Son has done by coming to live among us. Christmas time is certainly a time of remembering and it is also a time for welcoming fresh encounters with God through Jesus His Son. Those candles placed in the wreath do not bring light and warmth until they are ignited. We can ask Jesus to reignite in us what each of those candles represents. The first candle that we will light this week is the candle of HOPE. Recall the words of the angel Gabriel who came to give Mary the news that she had been chosen by God to bring HOPE into the world through the birth of His Son Jesus. The angel said to Mary, “Greetings you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 2:28b) When we recognize that the Lord is with us then HOPE is ignited in us. Where do we need Jesus to bring fresh HOPE to our daily lives? Are there places where we have grown disillusioned and weighed down with the cares of life? Are there challenges to our faith in God that can be met with the reassuring HOPE of His love and His Presence with us? God sent Jesus to restore HOPE that God has not forgotten us and that the HOPE that Jesus brings can be experienced by us today. Tomorrow Wednesday November 23rd, when we pause for our WEDNESDAY PRAYER TOGETHER at 1 pm, we will pray and wait expectantly for the HOPE that God will reignite in our hearts.
Thanking God for fresh encounters with Him through the HOPE He brings us again this Christmas season, Pastor Lola
Thank You our God for all the times we have waited before for You to bring HOPE in response to our prayers. Today we recognize that You know us so well and know every area of our lives where HOPE is needed. We are grateful that You do provide fresh encounters with You and fresh experiences of the HOPE that only You can provide. It is our prayer in this time leading up to Christmas that we will keep looking to You to ignite HOPE in our hearts and minds. Sometimes we become so focused on the way we hope You will answer our prayers that we miss seeing how You have come to be with us. Sometimes we look right past the HOPE filled answers You have provided because they are not exactly what we asked for and expected. Our God Who loves us completely, we pray and release to You the ways that You will fill us with HOPE. We want to find HOPE in our faith in You. When we do not understand what we are going through and what You will bring about, still we want to have our HOPE in You. God we recognize that You are a certain and reliable place for us to center our HOPE. Thank You God for the miraculous way that You chose to make HOPE real for all humankind by sending Your own Son Jesus to be our HOPE. Thank You that where Jesus resides there is always HOPE. We know that Jesus has come to live in us and to be with us always. This does fill us with HOPE. As we pray today we choose to step out of the darkness of our own burdens and distractions and to step into the light of Your Presence and Your plans for us. We look to You Who has lighted HOPE in us in the past and ask You God to do it again. Where HOPE in us is only a tiny flicker, we ask You to fan the flame into a brightly burning beacon. Our discovery of HOPE in You because of Jesus compels us to share Your HOPE everywhere we go. God we have seen answers to our prayers that could have only come form You. This has deepened our HOPE in You and we want others to be assured that You are available to be with them and to bring them HOPE as well. So many conversations these days divulge that people have lost HOPE. We are praying God for a rediscovery of HOPE through a rediscovery of You. This would be a wonderful gift for anyone to receive this Christmas and so we actively pray for this to happen. We willingly offer ourselves as the means of people rediscovering You God through our love and compassion. We want to be characterized as those Who know You and love You and find great reason for HOPE in You. Thank You God that You are with us always as You were with Mary Who brought Jesus Your Son and our Saviour into this world. We give ourselves to You in His Name. AMEN.