Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.
Psalm 42:11, ESV
Sometimes this life can get us down or even feel pointless and beyond hope.
But God is God. If we turn to Him and praise Him alone, we will find our joy and peace.
We are continuing the series originally posted five years ago!
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It is now the third week of Advent! (See the last two weeks’ devotional thought here (and here) and here (and here).)
Again, Advent is a time to remember our Lord’s first coming as we look forward to His imminent return.
So, let us prepare hearts for encountering the Lord!
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old“. . .
“for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”
Luke 1:68-70, 2:30-32, ESV
The first part of the quote is from Zechariah, John the Baptist’s dad, at John’s birth. The second part of the quote was said by Simeon, an old and devout man, when he saw the baby Jesus at the Temple.
These two men knew that the Lord’s salvation was at hand. If you read all of chapters one and two of Luke, you can see that even they did not understand His plan of salvation. They were on the right track, but they were not aware of how things would unfold.
The Lord had come, Emmanuel, God with us, and he brought salvation. It was first brought to Israel, the Jews in Jerusalem in particular, and then it spread to “all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) over the past 2,000 years.
What most everyone then did not know was that first the Lord would bring spiritual salvation, the forgiveness of sins and the repairing of the relationship with God and humanity; the physical redemption from all enemies is still to come.
Let us remember that salvation has come, but we await our salvation from the pain and evil of this world (see Romans 8). We do not understand fully how it will all happen, but we know Jesus will return!
May we not get caught up in the knowledge we have and miss the signs of His coming. May we remember that we are not home yet, and we await our coming Savior. May we bring as many as we can to all of this knowledge of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of the Father!
We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19, ESV
When we think of how the Father sacrificed His Son for our forgiveness out of His loved for us, we should be overcome with love for God and the lost He came to save.
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands
Revelation 7:9, ESV
We share the gospel because God loves all people, and we cannot comprehend all the ways the various cultures and personalities will worship Jesus in complete unison.
Oh, what a worship service that will be!
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12, ESV
Only by Jesus can we get eternal life. Believe in Him, and let His light shine through you to reach and save our fallen world.
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Galatians 6:10, ESV
We take care of our own. Interestingly, if we live or Christ’s love, we will probably pass it on to our lost, hurting world, so that they then will see our good works and praise our Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.
Luke 6:35, ESV
Be like God, who could have simply destroyed all sinners (including you and me), but He showed kindness to us by making a way back to Him.
Love all people.
