How to use this guide:

  • At least once or twice during each week, use this as a guide for your time alone with God.
  • Feel free to read just one of the readings, just one of the songs, just one of the prayer prompts.
  • Come back to it later in the week and feel free to read the same scripture as before, the same song as before, or choose another one.

Week 1 – Starting Sunday, November 30th

“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31

Many things strike fear in the heart of every person during the Christmas season.

Lights that don’t light up. 13 pages of assembly instructions. Lines at the store. So many lines…

The empty place at the table from one you’ve lost this past year. The empty place at the table from the strained relationship with one you hope shows up this year. Looking at your bank account and how much it costs to give your kids the “right” Christmas.

But there is one fear that connects us to those who were around during the first Christmas: waiting.

It doesn’t seem like humans have ever been good at waiting, but that is especially true in our day and age, isn’t it? Large portions of our economy exist to make it possible for us to avoid waiting. Each year, new and improved products reduce our waiting by milliseconds and we happily trade our hard earned money for those time savings.

And if you step into any retail store this time of year, you might think Advent is just about counting down the days until Christmas morning when everyone gets to tear into their presents. According to that version of Advent, waiting just means flipping the day on a cute snowman calendar or eating a piece of chocolate each day.

But that’s not the version of Advent that Christians have been practicing for centuries now. It is about what we do after we have prayed, “Our Father in Heaven, may your name be made holy, may your kingdom come, may your will be done – on earth as it is in Heaven,” but before those three requests have been made a reality in our lives and in our world. So how can we practice Advent this year?

First, we must place ourselves within the waiting that so many generations had to endure before the promised Messiah came. The Jews had been waiting for centuries. And then when their promised Messiah actually did come, there was a mixture of responses to him. Some believed, some were skeptical, some were angry. Maybe some were all three. The longer you wait, perhaps the harder it is to retain hope.

Second, we reflect on the waiting that we continue to endure. For prayers yet to be answered. For healing that has yet to come. For Christ’s sanctifying work in our hearts that has yet to be complete. For the promise of a new creation, a new heaven and earth, that has yet to come. We have been waiting for so long.

We will get to joy. For now, we can lament. We can be honest with our sorrows, our doubts that the coming will ever come, and our confusion about what the word “soon” means.

Below are some readings and practices to help you engage with God about waiting and HOPE.

Reading and Learning

READ: Luke 2:22-38

READ: Psalm 46

READ: Psalm 130

READ: Psalm 131

WATCH: The Bible Project – Overview of Hope (4 min)

WATCH: The Bible Project – Advent Podcast – Hope (33 min)

Music

LISTEN: “Watchman” by Josh Garrels

LISTEN: “The Reckoning” by Andrew Peterson

LISTEN: “Be on the Lookout” by Caroline Cobb

LISTEN: “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” by Celtic Worship

Practice

Find a quiet place and come to quiet in your mind and your heart. Remove distractions. Use a paper journal to write down your experiences during this practice.

In prayer, enter a conversation with God about your waiting and your hope.

  • Is there something you have been praying for and you are still waiting on the answer? Talk to God about that. Tell Him how you feel. Ask God to speak to you about that request.
  • Thinking forward to this Christmas season, tell God what you are hoping for. Ask Him how those hopes align with God’s will for you.
  • Thinking backward to your past, thank God for a hope fulfilled.
  • Meditate on the following phrase: “Jesus, you are all I need and all I could ever hope for.“

Week 2 – Starting Sunday, December 7th

“Be still, and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts” Colossians 3:15

The second week of Advent calls us to contemplate the Peace of Christ. Imagine that serene, quiet evening with the young family and their new baby in the “little town of Bethlehem.” After the hurriedness of a long trip and the stress of the impending delivery, they could finally breathe. The sounds of nature, sounds of the night. The occasional interruption by a cow or goat or sheep. Peace. Take a moment and come to quiet. Place yourself inside that stillness…

Zoom out just a bit, though, and we get a stark contrast. An occupying Roman government that is bent on keeping their idea of peace through violence. A local ruler, Herod, who will soon slaughter untold numbers of babies because of this new baby and his own insecurity, pride and ambition. So called “spiritual” leaders who are so bent on tradition and their own political influence that they succumb to the Roman violence machine, finish the job that Herod started, and put this baby to death about 3 decades later. Then a few short decades later, the Romans finish the job they themselves started 60 years before Jesus was born and finally destroy Jerusalem, the temple and many Jews. Is this really peace?

We do our best to create little versions of this peaceful, serene setting during the Christmas season, don’t we? We’re looking for that same still peace. Christmas decorations, those moments of stillness looking at the Christmas lights, quiet nights at home watching Christmas movies – fill in the blank for your own traditions. But we have the same contrast, don’t we? Christmas is the busiest time of year. Stress comes with the full calendar, the pressure to shop and to fulfill expectations, the arguments we get into with our kids during those moments we painstakingly crafted for the season, and the grief that so often accompanies this time of year. Not to mention the violence and strife all around our world today. Is this really peace?

One of the amazing aspects of salvation is that it brings us into a new relationship with our Creator Father. Or as Peter came to realize, “This is the message of Good News for the people of Israel—that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36 NLT). Or as Paul concluded, “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” (Romans 5:1 NLT)

We must start there. We are at peace with God through Jesus. Only from that foundation of peace can we truly experience peace in any other area of our lives. We must let that begin to move out into every part of our lives, replacing anxious toil with peace, replacing worry over our self-worth with peace, replacing striving for status with peace, replacing frustrated vengeance with peace. 

Below are some readings and practices to help you engage with God about PEACE.

Reading and Learning

READ: Luke 1:26-38

READ: Psalm 4

READ: Isaiah 2

READ: Colossians 1:15-22

READ: Ephesians 2:11-18

READ: Each time “peace” is used in the New Testament

WATCH: The Bible Project – Overview of Peace (4 min)

WATCH: The Bible Project – Advent Podcast – Peace (41 min)

Music

LISTEN: “There Will Be a Day” by Caroline Cobb

LISTEN: “Mary’s Song (Our King of Peace)” by Wendell Kimbrough, Page CXVI

LISTEN: “O Christ, Draw Near” by Paul Zach

LISTEN: “All is Well” by Sandra McCracken

LISTEN: “Patient Kingdom” by Sandra McCracken

LISTEN: “Make Room” by The Sing Team

LISTEN: “I See the Birds” by John Guerra

LISTEN: “MATIN: Rest (A Set of Quiet Songs at Sunrise)” by Jess Ray

Practice

Find a quiet place and come to quiet in your mind and your heart. Remove distractions. Use a paper journal to write down your experiences during this practice.

In prayer, enter a conversation with God about anything in you or around you that is in opposition to his peace.

  • Do you have internal conflict because you are struggling to accept the fact that you are truly at peace with God and that there is nothing between you and your Creator Father? Where are you striving trying to earn your right relationship with God?
  • What about this season this year is causing stress, anxiety, pressure to perform or other negative emotions? Talk about those things with God. Ask him for his perspective on those things. Ask for his peace.
  • Is there a place where you are contributing to a lack of peace in someone else? Ask God to help you become a peacemaker in that situation.
  • Meditate on the following phrase: “Jesus, you have done all that is necessary for me to be at peace.“

Week 3 – Starting Sunday, December 14th

“Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah 12:6

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11

The third week of Advent invites the joy of Christ’s appearing to swell inside of our hearts. Joy is an act of the will and an experience in the emotions. It is a present experience, but it is anchored in the past with gratitude and anchored in the future with hope. Thus, it is tightly connected with Advent, as Advent is both backward looking and forward looking. We look back at Christ’s first coming and we look forward to Christ’s second coming.

Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, and an apparently very important one as it is listed right after love. Like all the fruit of the Spirit, it is not automatically conferred in full measure at the point of salvation. It is fruit. It grows over time if given the fertile and cultivated soil needed to flourish.

In the absence of the experience of joy, it does us no good to beat ourselves up for not feeling joy, or to sit around and passively wait for this joy to suddenly just appear. What can we do? We can cultivate the soil of our hearts and trust the promises of our God that he will grow the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

Below are some readings and practices to help you cultivate God’s JOY.

Reading and Learning

READ: Luke 2:8-21

READ: Psalm 16

READ: Hebrews 12:1-3

READ: Matthew 13:1-23

WATCH: The Bible Project – Overview of Joy (5 min)

WATCH: The Bible Project – Advent Podcast – Joy (41 min)

Music

LISTEN: “Joy to the World” by The Sing Team

LISTEN: “New Song” by Folk Hymnal

LISTEN: “Hallelujah, Christ is Born” by Caroline Cobb

LISTEN: “Hope is Alive” by Ellie Holcomb

LISTEN: “Oh the Joy” by Cageless Birds

Practice

Find a quiet place and come to quiet in your mind and your heart. Remove distractions. Use a paper journal to write down your experiences during this practice.

In prayer enter a conversation with God about his joy:

Look back with gratitude. Look back at Christmas. Thank God for coming to earth to rescue us. Thank God for the obedience of Mary, Joseph, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Anna, Simeon and all those who played their part in the story – too many for us to know this side of glory. Thank Jesus for his faithfulness to finish the work he started through his death on the cross and his resurrection. Thank God for his faithfulness to preserve his church through the centuries so his good news was passed down to us. Thank God for coming to you. Remember the place you were in your life when you recognized him, confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior, received the free gift of eternal life by faith, and began your journey of following Him. Give thanks to God for his sustaining work in your life so far.

Ask God how you can participate with his Kingdom in the present. Christ’s joy can be appropriated to us as we join him in his work – bringing God’s Kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. Ask him to show you how he is working in you, through you, and around you. Ask him to help you increase your participation with him in his Kingdom. Ask him to show you what weeds and thorns have choked out his work in your life.

Look forward with hope. Ask God to show you in faith a vision of your future life with him. Not just a future here on earth where you are flourishing according to his will for your life, but a future with him in the new heavens and new earth.

Week 4 – Starting Sunday, December 21st

“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, since he was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.” Matthew 1:18-19

“This is real love – not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” 1 John 4:10

The last week of Advent calls us to experience the Love of Christ. But what is love? Hopefully, you’ve already begun experiencing a form of love this Christmas season – the love that comes from family and friends as we tell each other how much it means to us that we live in such a community of people who are devoted to each other and the good of all. Isn’t that why we do all the get-togethers and parties and presents? To express our feelings to those we love in concrete ways?

But there is an even greater expression of love – the kind of love that is borne out of righteousness – the kind of righteousness that “exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees” (Matthew 5:20) – the kind of righteousness that is the prerequisite to experience the Kingdom of the Heavens. This is the love that Joseph showed to Mary. Odd, yes, that the expression of his love was to put her away secretly.

You see, he was a righteous man, and his righteousness exceeded that of the law. By the laws of his day, he had every right to put away Mary in a public way, a way that would expose her to the shame of the people. But his righteousness meant that he showed her love – a love of substance, not feelings. A love that was truly interested in her well-being, regardless of what he was allowed to do. And all that was before the visit from the angel…

So when Jesus comes on the scene as an adult, ready to begin his ministry, we see that same righteousness put on display, expressed in love. When he went to be baptized by his cousin John, it was to “fulfill all righteousness.” The baptism into the waters of the Jordan was a symbol of what he was to do – go through the waters of death, concentrating all of the death that was the result of all sin into one explosive moment.

As the Righteous One, and by the laws of his holiness and purity, he could have left us to the consequences of the law. But he didn’t. And now, all those who are baptized into Christ and his death can experience his resurrection and life. This is the greatest expression of a love that is truly interested in in our well-being, regardless of what he is allowed to do.

May we experience the love of Jesus, the kind of love that surpasses the constraints of laws and rules. And then let us show that kind of love to all those around us.

Reading and Learning

READ: Luke 2:1-20

READ: Psalm 103

READ: Jeremiah 31:1-6

READ: Matthew 18:21-35

READ: Romans 5:6-11

WATCH: The Bible Project on Love

Music

LISTEN: “You Came Down” by Jill Phillips and Andy Gullahorn

LISTEN: “Noel” by Lauren Daigle

LISTEN: “Unto Us” by Paul Zach

LISTEN: “O Holy Night” by Josh Garrels

Practice

Find a quiet place and come to quiet in your mind and your heart. Remove distractions. Use a paper journal to write down your experiences during this practice.

In prayer, enter a conversation with God about anything inside of you or outside of you that is in opposition to his peace.

  • Reflect on how God pursued you before you made the decision to follow him. What evidence do you see in your own life that “while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you?”
  • Ask God for guidance on how best you can love your family and friends this Christmas season.
  • Are you having a hard time loving someone? Ask God to show you how you have been forgiven for something similar to what they have done to you. Ask for the strength to forgive.
  • Meditate on the following phrase: “Jesus, thank you for loving me when I didn’t deserve your love.“