Welcome to the first week of Advent!

I am currently mentally preparing to take down the fall décor and empty the many boxes of Christmas décor. I am mapping out what needs to be moved, what goes where, and making a list for the inevitable trip to Target. My brain is racing with all the holiday parties, traditions to squeeze in and the family calendar. I am already exhausted!

It is so easy to get caught up in creating the awe and wonder that comes with the Christmas season and forget to make room for the awe and wonder of Jesus. This week we will pause to reflect on our hope in Jesus.

What do you think of when you hear the word hope? According to the dictionary, hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. For us that “thing” is Jesus!

Let’s be real… to hope can be hard. We live in a broken world with pain, disappointment, fear, grief, sickness, sin, you name it – life can be hard. None of us are immune. We are told in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble.” Here’s the thing… the verse goes on to say, “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

The question for us is: Are we living as if Jesus has overcome the world, or are we blinded by the circumstances of our trouble?

You see, we can let our hardships and disappointments harden our hearts. So much so that it is the filter in which we see things. Instead of anticipating in a hopeful way, we come to expect the worse. Having hope may not change our circumstance but it does change our hearts.

We can both live in the reality of whatever trouble we are facing and have hope for the future – a future in Jesus! How does this work in real life? I am glad you asked!!

Isaiah 43:18-19 says,

God gave these words to the prophet Isaiah to speak to his people who were in captivity in Babylon. It is a message of hope for both them and us.

We cannot change the past. What we can do is acknowledge the impact it has on our life today, and work through it in a healthy way without dwelling there. Meaning, our pain is real and at the same time God is doing a new thing.

The problem is when we lose hope, we fail to see the goodness of God at work. The truth is, even in the wilderness we must train our hearts to prepare him room!

The advent season allows us to pause and do just that. Today as we prepare our homes and hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus, let us also not give up hope for His second coming. Instead, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).

Watch the corresponding video devotion on here.