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Closing the Gap 12.24.18

By December 24, 2018Daily Devotional

Advent Season Week 4

Week 51 Day 1

Pray:

Ask God to reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.

Read:

Rev. 21:1-5 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Reflect:

Waiting can exacerbate suffering. In fact part of what makes suffering what it is, is the waiting.  If we are hurting physically or mentally our pain can be increased by the fact that we are anxious to see it come to an end.  If we have a set time frame, if we know when a current challenge will end then it can make the waiting easier. No easy, but easier.  When there is no set time for our suffering to be alleviated, when all we see is another day followed by endless days of trouble…our suffering today increases. Waiting is difficult work.  Waiting well is powerful work. How does one wait “well”? Particularly when the waiting is during a painful season of life? The starting point for waiting well is gaining a compelling vision for the power and long-term impact of waiting. Advent Season is a season of waiting and a reminder of the power of waiting well.  Generations waited for Christ to come, and he did. Generations have waited for Christ to return, and he will. Now for all who live between the great “waits” it is important to see the value God places on waiting well. If we are going to maximize the benefits of waiting we must capture a compelling vision for the value of waiting.  The Scriptures are full of waiting and the powerful ways in which God uses waiting in our lives. Your own life is very likely a living example of the power and beauty of waiting. Have you paid attention to how God has used waiting in the past to shape you? Are you paying attention right now to how God is using a season of waiting to make you more like Christ in character?  You will have to wait; it is the nature of being human. God waits as well, but never impatiently or with anxiety. His waiting, like all of his activity is joyful, purposeful and powerful. Notice I said waiting is a form of his activity. To wait well we must learn to wait actively. We do not wait like a dead thing lying on the ground…powerless to do anything except to lay there.  We wait as living children of the living God. We wait empowered by faith and love to move decisively towards God and others. Our waiting must be powered by a vision of hope. “No” we do not know when God will move. “Yes” we do know that he will move. In the meantime our vision of waiting is a passionate, active, loving, faithful vision. Wait actively on God.

Pray:

(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today.

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