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 on Peace
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.“