A 4-Week Advent Devotional Plan
By: Aimee Joseph
By: Aimee Joseph
We would highly encourage you to click the PDF link below,
print this devotional plan out, and fill it out during the season
of Advent. This is intended to be an interactive plan to bless
you in your walk with the Lord this Advent season.
What Is Advent?
While many of us are not familiar with the Liturgical Calendar, for many denominations and for most of the long history of the Church, it set the times and seasons of Church and even home life. The Liturgical Calendar is broken up into six main seasons: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost, following the life of Christ our Lord. It is a way of keeping Christ the center of our lives in a world where, internally and externally, other lesser things fight to take center stage.
Advent is a season of waiting where we align ourselves with centuries upon centuries of God’s people waiting for their Savior. The word Advent literally means arrival or coming. Obviously, in Advent season, we remember the wait of God’s people for the First Coming, but we simultaneously strain and wait actively for His Second Coming, when He will return and finally establish the New Heavens and the New Earth.
We desperately need to be reminded that we are not counting down the days to pretty packages or gingerbread houses or Christmas trees. While those are all lovely things, the gifts get lost, the gingerbread goes stale, and the trees litter our homes with two billion pine needles. We need to be reminded that we are counting down to the world as it was meant to be, to the Second Coming of the Prince of Peace. Our souls desperately need to remember that what we long for, what the earth groans for, is not a perpetual holiday season, but a perpetual peace. And Christ Himself is our peace.
Frank Kermode wrote that when Christ intervened into time and space, "a new series of time began, and it was somehow, at least potentially, of a different quality." He continues, “The incarnation entailed the intervention of God into human time, after which nothing could be as it was."
Time of a different quality. That is what Christ allows us to experience as we live in between the two comings. Advent pushes me to look at time and live in time differently. In his letter to the Church at Philippi, Paul talks about his own longing, expectancy as he feels torn between life on earth and a fuller life with Christ through death. He wrestles as he writes from a lonely prison cell:
"For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." Philippians 1:19-20
The word Paul uses for earnest expectation is the Greek word apokaradokia meaning thinking with head-outstretched with intense expectation. Think an Olympic runner straining forward on the homestretch, fighting through fatigue, pain, and exhaustion. It's an active and aggressive word, not a gentle, hands-folded-neatly word. This waiting implies a turning away from the lesser and a striving toward the greater. Greek scholars say this word implies "abstraction and absorption," abstraction from anything that might distract or hinder and absorption on what is coming.
It is a strained expectancy that pushes through loneliness, disappointment, monotony, suffering and the like. Oh, Lord, let us have advent attitudes that strain and strive to wait for that hope which will never disappoint. And not just for twenty plus days, but for twenty plus years or anything in between.
Advent is a season of waiting where we align ourselves with centuries upon centuries of God’s people waiting for their Savior. The word Advent literally means arrival or coming. Obviously, in Advent season, we remember the wait of God’s people for the First Coming, but we simultaneously strain and wait actively for His Second Coming, when He will return and finally establish the New Heavens and the New Earth.
We desperately need to be reminded that we are not counting down the days to pretty packages or gingerbread houses or Christmas trees. While those are all lovely things, the gifts get lost, the gingerbread goes stale, and the trees litter our homes with two billion pine needles. We need to be reminded that we are counting down to the world as it was meant to be, to the Second Coming of the Prince of Peace. Our souls desperately need to remember that what we long for, what the earth groans for, is not a perpetual holiday season, but a perpetual peace. And Christ Himself is our peace.
Frank Kermode wrote that when Christ intervened into time and space, "a new series of time began, and it was somehow, at least potentially, of a different quality." He continues, “The incarnation entailed the intervention of God into human time, after which nothing could be as it was."
Time of a different quality. That is what Christ allows us to experience as we live in between the two comings. Advent pushes me to look at time and live in time differently. In his letter to the Church at Philippi, Paul talks about his own longing, expectancy as he feels torn between life on earth and a fuller life with Christ through death. He wrestles as he writes from a lonely prison cell:
"For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death." Philippians 1:19-20
The word Paul uses for earnest expectation is the Greek word apokaradokia meaning thinking with head-outstretched with intense expectation. Think an Olympic runner straining forward on the homestretch, fighting through fatigue, pain, and exhaustion. It's an active and aggressive word, not a gentle, hands-folded-neatly word. This waiting implies a turning away from the lesser and a striving toward the greater. Greek scholars say this word implies "abstraction and absorption," abstraction from anything that might distract or hinder and absorption on what is coming.
It is a strained expectancy that pushes through loneliness, disappointment, monotony, suffering and the like. Oh, Lord, let us have advent attitudes that strain and strive to wait for that hope which will never disappoint. And not just for twenty plus days, but for twenty plus years or anything in between.
Outline
Week 1: Waiting on God
Abraham: Waiting on the promise (Genesis 15:1-6, 16: 1-6, 17: 1-8; 21:1-7)
Joseph: Waiting on deliverance (Genesis 40 & 41)
Naomi: Waiting on relief (Ruth 1:19-22 & Ruth 4:13-22)
Psalmist: Honest waiting (Psalm 130)
Joseph: Waiting on deliverance (Genesis 40 & 41)
Naomi: Waiting on relief (Ruth 1:19-22 & Ruth 4:13-22)
Psalmist: Honest waiting (Psalm 130)
Week 2: Waiting for Christ’s First Coming
Major prophets (Isaiah 9:2-7)
Minor prophet (Zephaniah 3:14-20)
Mary (Luke 1:26-56)
Simeon & Anna (Luke 2:22-38)
Minor prophet (Zephaniah 3:14-20)
Mary (Luke 1:26-56)
Simeon & Anna (Luke 2:22-38)
Week 3: Waiting with the Spirit
With Purpose (Titus 2:11-14)
With Hope (1 John 2:28-29 & 1 John 3:1-3)
With Groaning (Romans 8:18-25)
With Long-suffering (Habakkuk 3:16-19)
With Hope (1 John 2:28-29 & 1 John 3:1-3)
With Groaning (Romans 8:18-25)
With Long-suffering (Habakkuk 3:16-19)
Week 4: Waiting for Christ’s Second Coming
Strangers & Exiles (Hebrews 11:13-16)
Sowing Tears, Reaping Joy (Psalm 126)
The Way of Holiness (Isaiah 35)
The Grand Finale (Revelation 21:1-8 & Revelation 22)
Sowing Tears, Reaping Joy (Psalm 126)
The Way of Holiness (Isaiah 35)
The Grand Finale (Revelation 21:1-8 & Revelation 22)
Week 1: Waiting on God
Day One: Abraham, Waiting on the promise
When we read Genesis or watch the process by which God calls Abram and slowly transforms him into Abraham, it is easy to see a swift story in which page rapidly follows page and chapter quickly follows chapter; however, upon a closer reading, one realizes that God’s unfolding plan, promises and process concerning this man were gradual and slow.
We meet Abram in Genesis 12:1-3, where God simply comes to him and say, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing."
From this initial call, we hear triple cost (leave country, kindred, house) and triple reward (great nation, great blessing, great name). God doesn’t fill in the details, but bids Abram to venture out in obedience. Genesis 12:4 simply tells us in highly understated from, "So Abram went, as the the Lord had told him."
Thus began Abram’s long journey of waiting on God. He waited for further direction, he waited for land, but mostly he waited for that promised son. And he waited and waited and waited. In the decades of waiting, he and his aged wife understandably grew weary.
Read Genesis 15:1-6, 16:1-6, 17: 1-8 and finally 21:1-7
In Genesis 15:1, when Abram was afraid and weary of the long wait and likely beginning to question his sanity in leaving a known life for an unknown one following the Lord, God says something powerful to him to edify him for the remainder of the long wait. Some translations read, "I am your very great reward." It is so easy to get fixated on blessings or rewards or the things upon which we are waiting (clarity, direction, an open door, a spouse, a child, a job, etc); yet, God reminds us that He Himself is our greatest reward.
What rewards have you been longing for? What does it mean that God Himself is your very great reward? How does that transform your waiting?
In their weariness, they created Ishmael, an illegitimate son out of their own plans and effort. While you may not be waiting on a child, you are likely waiting on something significant. What are you waiting on? In your weariness, what Ishmael’s are you tempted to create?
Eventually, God does give Abraham and Sarah their child of the promise. But the couple who receives Isaac is different from the couple that received the promise so many decades earlier. In the long wait, they were made ready for the child of promise. Where do you see God making you ready ? What internal fruit is waiting producing in you now (or in a past season of long waiting)?
Day Two: Joseph: Waiting on deliverance.
Similar to Abraham, Joseph was a man well-accustomed with waiting. While initially he was sitting pretty as his father, Isaac’s, favorite, his own boasting and his brother’s jealousy landed him on a long, circuitous journey to Egypt laced with suffering. Beat up and rejected by his brothers, he was sold into slavery and found himself as a servant in a wealthy Egyptian man, Potiphar. After repeatedly refusing to be allured by Potiphar’s insistent wife, he found himself wrongly imprisoned in Egypt. While he had received visions of being an instrument used by God in his early years, by mid-life, reality was a far cry from his visions. Yet, throughout the story of Joseph, we repeated hear this phrase, "But God was with Joseph." In Genesis 40, we find Joseph still imprisoned in Egypt, waiting on God to deliver him and make good on the visions he had received from the Lord as a young man.
Read Genesis 40 & 41
While most of us probably have little experience behind physical bars, we know all too well what it feels like to be stuck. Some of us have been stuck in habits, patterns and situations that seem to imprison us for years. Some of us feel imprisoned by life circumstances, be they sickness or singleness, infertility, or isolation. All of us have wondered if God remembers where He has us and can make good on the lavish promises He has given to us in His Word. Where and from what are you presently looking for deliverance?
After interpreting the dreams of fellow prisoners, it is likely that Joseph felt his long wait for deliverance was over. He asked his former inmate friends to remember him on the other side of the prison walls; however, they forget to mention him. Thus, Joseph found himself waiting two more years, wondering if God, too, had forgotten him, waiting on deliverance. What do you think it was like for Joseph in those two years before the Cupbearer remembered him and recommended him to Pharaoh? How would you have responded?
Joseph was seventeen when he had his own dream that his brothers would bow down to him. He was not instituted to a leadership role in Egypt until he was 30. Then the seven years of plenty he had intreated for Pharaoh came, followed by the years of famine, making him in his forties when his brothers came and he forgave them. How do you think God used the suffering and waiting years to change Joseph from the brash and boasting teenager into a man who forgave his brothers the pain they caused him? How and where has God used waiting to change and shape your character?
Day Three: Naomi, Waiting on relief.
Hopefully by now you are beginning to see how well-acquainted God’s people have always been with waiting. Naomi is certainly no exception. One of the shorter books of the Old Testament, the book of Ruth chronicles the life of a family who traveled through much grief. During a famine, Naomi, her husband and their two sons leave Bethlehem in search of fairer weather, quite literally. They end up in the land of the Moabites, sworn enemies of God’s people. There, Naomi’s world is turned upside down when she loses not only her husband, but also her two sons, leaving her with Moabite daughter-in-laws. In an act of unparalleled loyalty and graciousness, Ruth, one of her daughters-in-law, refuses to leave the bitter and bereft Naomi alone.
Read Ruth 1:19-22 & Ruth 4:13-22
The two head back to Bethlehem where her former friends see a women transformed and transfigured by grief. How does Naomi describe herself when she comes back to Bethlehem? Have you ever been in a season when you, too, felt renamed and undone by grief?
The book of Ruth begins with Naomi’s friends surrounding her and ends the same way. In between the book ends, there is a long journey of risking and waiting for relief and hope. Along the way, God provides amply for Naomi through Ruth’s loyalty, Boaz’s generosity and even through Jewish law that has a provision for rescuing their line. Over time, Naomi is able to trace God’s gracious dealings with her through her tragedy and pain. So often, when we are grieving losses (be they small or large, temporary or lasting), we are unable to see God’s grace and provision for us in the process. Are you in a grieving season? Have you been in one? Can you relate to Naomi’s initial blindness at the ways God was still with her, even in her devastation and grief?
When they moved to Bethlehem, Naomi had no idea how this tragedy of loss could end well. Yet, God knew what He was doing all along. The book ends with Naomi as a proud grandmother holding her grandson, likely smiling and proud. Beyond that, God had an even bigger story in mind, as that grandbaby boy would be in the lineage of Christ. Through unthinkable tragedy and unspeakable pain, God was working His redemption. Have you been in or are you in a situation that seems like it could not have a good end? Read Romans 8:28-29. Where have you seen God working all things together for the good in your life lately?
Day Four: Psalmist, Honest waiting.
Lest you begin to think that people in the Old Testament waited perfectly and without struggle, God saw fit to include multiple accounts of the agony and honest wrestling that most often accompany waiting. Many of these are found in the Psalms, where with pens seemingly connected to the human heart, the Psalmists wrote way back then what we still feel today.
Psalm 130 is in the middle of a small collection of Psalms within the larger collection of Psalms, known as the Psalms of Ascent. These were likely songs that God’s people sang on their long travels from rural villages to the city of Jerusalem for feasts. The Psalms of Ascent slowly moved the people’s hearts upward inwardly as their bodies were marching up mountains outwardly. As they traveled, they remembered the One for whom they were waiting, the God who set them apart. They likely shook off the worries and concerns of daily life and were reminded of their faithful God who was worth the wait.
Read Psalm 130
Few of us know what it is like to be a night watchmen standing on a wall, longing for the sun to rise, offering relief from strenuous duty; however, all of us know what it means to wait in some capacity. When is the last time you eagerly, actively waited upon something or someone? What emotions did you feel as you waited? Describe the relief and joy you felt when the wait was over.
Notice that the Psalmists were not waiting on a gift or a wedding or a child. They were waiting on God Himself. For God’s people before Christ, God’s presence was mostly limited to the Temple. To meet with God, they would have to travel long distances at great costs. You can hear the anticipation and excitement building as they get closer and closer to experiencing the Presence of God in the Temple.
On the other side of the life, death and resurrection of Christ, we have access to God at all times through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. In our carpool lines, our cubicles, our bedrooms and anywhere else, we can enter confidently into the presence of God. When was the last time you eagerly anticipated God’s presence? Do you take for granted the access we have to the throne room of God?
The Psalmists looked ahead to a future deliverer, but their vision of what was to come was blurry at best. We, however, look back on the life, death and resurrection of Christ through the gospels and with the aid of the Holy Spirit who illumines our study of the Scriptures. In this song, the Psalmist imagined the plentiful redemption of the Lord who would redeem Israel from all His iniquities. We don’t have to imagine this, we have experienced it. Where do you see and have you personally experienced the plentiful redemption of Jesus? Where and in what situations are you looking for God to show His plentiful redemption anew? Where do you need to heed the Psalmist’s command, "O Israel, hope in the Lord!" ?
When we read Genesis or watch the process by which God calls Abram and slowly transforms him into Abraham, it is easy to see a swift story in which page rapidly follows page and chapter quickly follows chapter; however, upon a closer reading, one realizes that God’s unfolding plan, promises and process concerning this man were gradual and slow.
We meet Abram in Genesis 12:1-3, where God simply comes to him and say, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing."
From this initial call, we hear triple cost (leave country, kindred, house) and triple reward (great nation, great blessing, great name). God doesn’t fill in the details, but bids Abram to venture out in obedience. Genesis 12:4 simply tells us in highly understated from, "So Abram went, as the the Lord had told him."
Thus began Abram’s long journey of waiting on God. He waited for further direction, he waited for land, but mostly he waited for that promised son. And he waited and waited and waited. In the decades of waiting, he and his aged wife understandably grew weary.
Read Genesis 15:1-6, 16:1-6, 17: 1-8 and finally 21:1-7
In Genesis 15:1, when Abram was afraid and weary of the long wait and likely beginning to question his sanity in leaving a known life for an unknown one following the Lord, God says something powerful to him to edify him for the remainder of the long wait. Some translations read, "I am your very great reward." It is so easy to get fixated on blessings or rewards or the things upon which we are waiting (clarity, direction, an open door, a spouse, a child, a job, etc); yet, God reminds us that He Himself is our greatest reward.
What rewards have you been longing for? What does it mean that God Himself is your very great reward? How does that transform your waiting?
In their weariness, they created Ishmael, an illegitimate son out of their own plans and effort. While you may not be waiting on a child, you are likely waiting on something significant. What are you waiting on? In your weariness, what Ishmael’s are you tempted to create?
Eventually, God does give Abraham and Sarah their child of the promise. But the couple who receives Isaac is different from the couple that received the promise so many decades earlier. In the long wait, they were made ready for the child of promise. Where do you see God making you ready ? What internal fruit is waiting producing in you now (or in a past season of long waiting)?
Day Two: Joseph: Waiting on deliverance.
Similar to Abraham, Joseph was a man well-accustomed with waiting. While initially he was sitting pretty as his father, Isaac’s, favorite, his own boasting and his brother’s jealousy landed him on a long, circuitous journey to Egypt laced with suffering. Beat up and rejected by his brothers, he was sold into slavery and found himself as a servant in a wealthy Egyptian man, Potiphar. After repeatedly refusing to be allured by Potiphar’s insistent wife, he found himself wrongly imprisoned in Egypt. While he had received visions of being an instrument used by God in his early years, by mid-life, reality was a far cry from his visions. Yet, throughout the story of Joseph, we repeated hear this phrase, "But God was with Joseph." In Genesis 40, we find Joseph still imprisoned in Egypt, waiting on God to deliver him and make good on the visions he had received from the Lord as a young man.
Read Genesis 40 & 41
While most of us probably have little experience behind physical bars, we know all too well what it feels like to be stuck. Some of us have been stuck in habits, patterns and situations that seem to imprison us for years. Some of us feel imprisoned by life circumstances, be they sickness or singleness, infertility, or isolation. All of us have wondered if God remembers where He has us and can make good on the lavish promises He has given to us in His Word. Where and from what are you presently looking for deliverance?
After interpreting the dreams of fellow prisoners, it is likely that Joseph felt his long wait for deliverance was over. He asked his former inmate friends to remember him on the other side of the prison walls; however, they forget to mention him. Thus, Joseph found himself waiting two more years, wondering if God, too, had forgotten him, waiting on deliverance. What do you think it was like for Joseph in those two years before the Cupbearer remembered him and recommended him to Pharaoh? How would you have responded?
Joseph was seventeen when he had his own dream that his brothers would bow down to him. He was not instituted to a leadership role in Egypt until he was 30. Then the seven years of plenty he had intreated for Pharaoh came, followed by the years of famine, making him in his forties when his brothers came and he forgave them. How do you think God used the suffering and waiting years to change Joseph from the brash and boasting teenager into a man who forgave his brothers the pain they caused him? How and where has God used waiting to change and shape your character?
Day Three: Naomi, Waiting on relief.
Hopefully by now you are beginning to see how well-acquainted God’s people have always been with waiting. Naomi is certainly no exception. One of the shorter books of the Old Testament, the book of Ruth chronicles the life of a family who traveled through much grief. During a famine, Naomi, her husband and their two sons leave Bethlehem in search of fairer weather, quite literally. They end up in the land of the Moabites, sworn enemies of God’s people. There, Naomi’s world is turned upside down when she loses not only her husband, but also her two sons, leaving her with Moabite daughter-in-laws. In an act of unparalleled loyalty and graciousness, Ruth, one of her daughters-in-law, refuses to leave the bitter and bereft Naomi alone.
Read Ruth 1:19-22 & Ruth 4:13-22
The two head back to Bethlehem where her former friends see a women transformed and transfigured by grief. How does Naomi describe herself when she comes back to Bethlehem? Have you ever been in a season when you, too, felt renamed and undone by grief?
The book of Ruth begins with Naomi’s friends surrounding her and ends the same way. In between the book ends, there is a long journey of risking and waiting for relief and hope. Along the way, God provides amply for Naomi through Ruth’s loyalty, Boaz’s generosity and even through Jewish law that has a provision for rescuing their line. Over time, Naomi is able to trace God’s gracious dealings with her through her tragedy and pain. So often, when we are grieving losses (be they small or large, temporary or lasting), we are unable to see God’s grace and provision for us in the process. Are you in a grieving season? Have you been in one? Can you relate to Naomi’s initial blindness at the ways God was still with her, even in her devastation and grief?
When they moved to Bethlehem, Naomi had no idea how this tragedy of loss could end well. Yet, God knew what He was doing all along. The book ends with Naomi as a proud grandmother holding her grandson, likely smiling and proud. Beyond that, God had an even bigger story in mind, as that grandbaby boy would be in the lineage of Christ. Through unthinkable tragedy and unspeakable pain, God was working His redemption. Have you been in or are you in a situation that seems like it could not have a good end? Read Romans 8:28-29. Where have you seen God working all things together for the good in your life lately?
Day Four: Psalmist, Honest waiting.
Lest you begin to think that people in the Old Testament waited perfectly and without struggle, God saw fit to include multiple accounts of the agony and honest wrestling that most often accompany waiting. Many of these are found in the Psalms, where with pens seemingly connected to the human heart, the Psalmists wrote way back then what we still feel today.
Psalm 130 is in the middle of a small collection of Psalms within the larger collection of Psalms, known as the Psalms of Ascent. These were likely songs that God’s people sang on their long travels from rural villages to the city of Jerusalem for feasts. The Psalms of Ascent slowly moved the people’s hearts upward inwardly as their bodies were marching up mountains outwardly. As they traveled, they remembered the One for whom they were waiting, the God who set them apart. They likely shook off the worries and concerns of daily life and were reminded of their faithful God who was worth the wait.
Read Psalm 130
Few of us know what it is like to be a night watchmen standing on a wall, longing for the sun to rise, offering relief from strenuous duty; however, all of us know what it means to wait in some capacity. When is the last time you eagerly, actively waited upon something or someone? What emotions did you feel as you waited? Describe the relief and joy you felt when the wait was over.
Notice that the Psalmists were not waiting on a gift or a wedding or a child. They were waiting on God Himself. For God’s people before Christ, God’s presence was mostly limited to the Temple. To meet with God, they would have to travel long distances at great costs. You can hear the anticipation and excitement building as they get closer and closer to experiencing the Presence of God in the Temple.
On the other side of the life, death and resurrection of Christ, we have access to God at all times through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. In our carpool lines, our cubicles, our bedrooms and anywhere else, we can enter confidently into the presence of God. When was the last time you eagerly anticipated God’s presence? Do you take for granted the access we have to the throne room of God?
The Psalmists looked ahead to a future deliverer, but their vision of what was to come was blurry at best. We, however, look back on the life, death and resurrection of Christ through the gospels and with the aid of the Holy Spirit who illumines our study of the Scriptures. In this song, the Psalmist imagined the plentiful redemption of the Lord who would redeem Israel from all His iniquities. We don’t have to imagine this, we have experienced it. Where do you see and have you personally experienced the plentiful redemption of Jesus? Where and in what situations are you looking for God to show His plentiful redemption anew? Where do you need to heed the Psalmist’s command, "O Israel, hope in the Lord!" ?
Week 2: Waiting for Christ’s First Coming
Day One. Waiting with the major prophets.
God raised up Isaiah as one of the major prophets during a dark time for the nation of Israel. God’s people, meant to be unified nation, had long since split into the Northern kingdom and the Southern kingdom. The Northern kingdom had been carried into captivity under the Assyrians and the Southern kingdom was fraught with idolatry and conflict. Nothing seemed to be as it should have been, and God’s people were confused and far from Him and His ways. Through Isaiah, God spoke both consequences and hope over His people. Isaiah, in the midst of a wayward people, proclaimed that God would do a new thing and would bring the promised Messiah to redeem them from their sins and to rescue them from their strong enemies. Even though the book of Isaiah is littered with prophecies and references to the Coming Messiah, God’s people never expected Him to come in the form of one who would suffer and usher in a very different kingdom than the earthly one they were long expecting.
Read Isaiah 9:2-7
What does God promise through the prophet Isaiah? In light of the dark and seemingly hopeless context into which Isaiah was speaking, what does this message of hope mean?
We neither live under the heavy yoke of an oppressive nation nor have we been carried away from our homes in exile; however, we know an even heavier yoke that is common to all humanity: slavery to our sin and our selves. Many false saviors promise us to remove this weight, yet none of them are able to accomplish what they promise. Where do you most feel the heaviness of the yoke of sin for yourself? For our culture? To what false saviors do you tend to look for relief?
How is the coming Christ described by Isaiah?
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
A Hymn by Charles Wesley
God raised up Isaiah as one of the major prophets during a dark time for the nation of Israel. God’s people, meant to be unified nation, had long since split into the Northern kingdom and the Southern kingdom. The Northern kingdom had been carried into captivity under the Assyrians and the Southern kingdom was fraught with idolatry and conflict. Nothing seemed to be as it should have been, and God’s people were confused and far from Him and His ways. Through Isaiah, God spoke both consequences and hope over His people. Isaiah, in the midst of a wayward people, proclaimed that God would do a new thing and would bring the promised Messiah to redeem them from their sins and to rescue them from their strong enemies. Even though the book of Isaiah is littered with prophecies and references to the Coming Messiah, God’s people never expected Him to come in the form of one who would suffer and usher in a very different kingdom than the earthly one they were long expecting.
Read Isaiah 9:2-7
What does God promise through the prophet Isaiah? In light of the dark and seemingly hopeless context into which Isaiah was speaking, what does this message of hope mean?
We neither live under the heavy yoke of an oppressive nation nor have we been carried away from our homes in exile; however, we know an even heavier yoke that is common to all humanity: slavery to our sin and our selves. Many false saviors promise us to remove this weight, yet none of them are able to accomplish what they promise. Where do you most feel the heaviness of the yoke of sin for yourself? For our culture? To what false saviors do you tend to look for relief?
How is the coming Christ described by Isaiah?
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
A Hymn by Charles Wesley
Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.
Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne
What parts of this traditional Christmas hymn resonated most deeply with you? Why?
Day Two: Waiting with the minor prophets.
Around 200 years after Isaiah’s tenure as a major prophet, God raised up a string of prophets which we refer to as the minor prophets (around 620 BC). Zephaniah, one of these minor prophets, prophesied during the reign of Josiah, one of the few decent kings in a string of terrible ones. Despite the leadership of a king who wanted to do right by God, the Southern Kingdom (Judah) continued to stray from Him. Zephaniah’s message revolved mainly around the coming day of the Lord which was to be a time of judgment against those who disobey God and a time of blessing for those who obeyed Him. Despite the heaviness of his message, the book of Zephaniah ends with a prophecy of hope.
Read Zephaniah 3:14-20
Where did you hear hope in these verses? What specific imagery does the prophet use to
paint a picture of the hope coming with Christ?
We know that only in Christ can God’s judgment be satisfied and God’s people be spared and welcomed back into free and full intimacy with Him. Christ was the only obedient one who deserved the blessings. We are, all of us, the disobedient children who have earned wrath. According to these verses, what blessings do you receive through Christ?
Day Three: Waiting with Mary.
Most of are familiar with the Christmas story, almost too familiar. Having heard these stories read every Christmas and in countless books and movies, it is easy to rush past them thinking we know it all. In light of our familiarity, it is helpful to ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes anew and afresh to the Scriptures. Also, it is helpful to reread the Scriptural accounts slowly and with our imaginations.
Read Luke 1:26-38
As you reread the account of Gabriel coming to Mary, what stood out? What resonated with
you? Did you notice or feel anything new?
Try to imagine yourself as Mary, an average teenager, preparing for her wedding, suddenly approached by an angelic messenger with a life changing message and task. How would you respond? How did Mary respond?
After the angel departed, it is likely that the weight of reality set in. How would she tell her fiancee? How would this news be received? How could she raise the Messiah? In her fear and in her humanity, Mary did what we do when we overwhelmed: she sought refuge in dear friends. She rushed to the house of Elizabeth who helped her carry the burden and also celebrated with her in the joy.
Read Luke 1:39-56
What happened when Mary and Elizabeth shared their burdens and joys together? Where do you run when your burdens are heavy or your joys are overflowing?
Day Two: Waiting with the minor prophets.
Around 200 years after Isaiah’s tenure as a major prophet, God raised up a string of prophets which we refer to as the minor prophets (around 620 BC). Zephaniah, one of these minor prophets, prophesied during the reign of Josiah, one of the few decent kings in a string of terrible ones. Despite the leadership of a king who wanted to do right by God, the Southern Kingdom (Judah) continued to stray from Him. Zephaniah’s message revolved mainly around the coming day of the Lord which was to be a time of judgment against those who disobey God and a time of blessing for those who obeyed Him. Despite the heaviness of his message, the book of Zephaniah ends with a prophecy of hope.
Read Zephaniah 3:14-20
Where did you hear hope in these verses? What specific imagery does the prophet use to
paint a picture of the hope coming with Christ?
We know that only in Christ can God’s judgment be satisfied and God’s people be spared and welcomed back into free and full intimacy with Him. Christ was the only obedient one who deserved the blessings. We are, all of us, the disobedient children who have earned wrath. According to these verses, what blessings do you receive through Christ?
Day Three: Waiting with Mary.
Most of are familiar with the Christmas story, almost too familiar. Having heard these stories read every Christmas and in countless books and movies, it is easy to rush past them thinking we know it all. In light of our familiarity, it is helpful to ask the Holy Spirit to open our eyes anew and afresh to the Scriptures. Also, it is helpful to reread the Scriptural accounts slowly and with our imaginations.
Read Luke 1:26-38
As you reread the account of Gabriel coming to Mary, what stood out? What resonated with
you? Did you notice or feel anything new?
Try to imagine yourself as Mary, an average teenager, preparing for her wedding, suddenly approached by an angelic messenger with a life changing message and task. How would you respond? How did Mary respond?
After the angel departed, it is likely that the weight of reality set in. How would she tell her fiancee? How would this news be received? How could she raise the Messiah? In her fear and in her humanity, Mary did what we do when we overwhelmed: she sought refuge in dear friends. She rushed to the house of Elizabeth who helped her carry the burden and also celebrated with her in the joy.
Read Luke 1:39-56
What happened when Mary and Elizabeth shared their burdens and joys together? Where do you run when your burdens are heavy or your joys are overflowing?
He sought her permission,
She replied in submission,
Scared yet sacred mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
When she should be resting,
Herod her strength was testing.
Enduring, expectant mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
She held him to her shoulder
As the desert wind grew colder,
Exhausted, exhilarated mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
He whimpered in the night,
As they fled another plight,
Fleeing, fearful mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
Simeon held him in devotion,
Uttering words of mixed emotion,
Devoted, doting mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
She replied in submission,
Scared yet sacred mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
When she should be resting,
Herod her strength was testing.
Enduring, expectant mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
She held him to her shoulder
As the desert wind grew colder,
Exhausted, exhilarated mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
He whimpered in the night,
As they fled another plight,
Fleeing, fearful mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
Simeon held him in devotion,
Uttering words of mixed emotion,
Devoted, doting mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
Certain she'd lost the Savior,
Her son of strange behavior,
Frantic, searching mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
She watched him leave home,
His time had come to roam,
Saddened, sending mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
As they bragged about the healing,
She saw a coming cup of reeling,
Protective, pensive mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
Her son was lifted on a cross,
Words cannot capture her loss.
Speechless, suffering mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
Joy deeper than sorrow's woes,
Pulsed in her when he arose,
Dancing, delighted mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
He is full of favor, we've no need to fear.
Her son of strange behavior,
Frantic, searching mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
She watched him leave home,
His time had come to roam,
Saddened, sending mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
As they bragged about the healing,
She saw a coming cup of reeling,
Protective, pensive mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
Her son was lifted on a cross,
Words cannot capture her loss.
Speechless, suffering mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
Joy deeper than sorrow's woes,
Pulsed in her when he arose,
Dancing, delighted mother:
Full of favor, fraught with fear.
He is full of favor, we've no need to fear.
Day Four: Waiting with Simeon & Anna.
As Mary and Joseph awaited their baby boy, plenty of other devout Israelites wondered if the Messiah would ever come. Trusting in the promises of God, these faithful ones eagerly, exhaustedly strained to see the Coming Savior. After the last minor prophet was on the scene, there was a 400 year period of silence. God did not send another prophet, another mouthpiece, another judge. It is understandable that God’s people were tired of waiting and were beginning to wonder if God had left them altogether. Among those who continued to wait in hope were Simeon and Anna.
Read Luke 2:22-38
How does Luke describe Simeon? What is his response to seeing the Christ child?
How does Luke describe Anna? What can we learn from her perseverant hope?
The way these two spent their days revealed where their deepest hope was set. What do your time, talent, treasures and transactions say about where your deepest hope tends to be set?
As Mary and Joseph awaited their baby boy, plenty of other devout Israelites wondered if the Messiah would ever come. Trusting in the promises of God, these faithful ones eagerly, exhaustedly strained to see the Coming Savior. After the last minor prophet was on the scene, there was a 400 year period of silence. God did not send another prophet, another mouthpiece, another judge. It is understandable that God’s people were tired of waiting and were beginning to wonder if God had left them altogether. Among those who continued to wait in hope were Simeon and Anna.
Read Luke 2:22-38
How does Luke describe Simeon? What is his response to seeing the Christ child?
How does Luke describe Anna? What can we learn from her perseverant hope?
The way these two spent their days revealed where their deepest hope was set. What do your time, talent, treasures and transactions say about where your deepest hope tends to be set?
Straining to See the King
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, this he knew too well,
Waiting for the consolation of which all the Scriptures tell.
Simeon, in the Temple of the Lord, daily watched and waited
For the Savior he was to meet before his life on earth abated.
The Holy Spirit had filled him and promised him this peace,
Lighting in his soul a burning hope that simply would not cease.
His young, sharp eyes with age grew dim, straining still to see
The Word of God he so revered, the Messiah who would be.
His hands once strong now feeble, in old age still fought to cling
To the Spirit’s promise that his eyes would see the coming King.
He was known to be devout and righteous; his life had proved this true;
Yet there he was still waiting while his remaining days were few.
His weary eyes were tired, but even more so was his heart,
Longing to see the Lord’s anointed and thence in peace depart.
Had he heard it wrong? Was the promise merely hopeful delusion?
Had decades of faithful service and waiting led only to confusion?
Interrupting his wrestling, two simple Nazarenes drew near,
Carrying their newborn son, filled with deep and reverent fear.
They came to obey the custom, but for a lamb they could not pay,
So for the firstborn’s consecration, two pigeons would be offered today.
Simeon saw the approaching family and knew without a doubt,
This was the Christ, the Chosen One, Who the Word had told about.
At once his eyes glittered and his tense heart was finally at rest,
As he held the fragile baby so close to his shaking chest.
Looking to God, as tears streamed down his wrinkled cheek,
He praised the One, who being strong had willfully become weak.
God sent the promised salvation; He had been true to His word;
This child would open His kingdom to Gentiles who had not heard.
By grace Simeon was able to understand what so few others could;
This child’s perfect life would bring him to a shameful cross of wood.
Though they would make a sacrifice to consecrate him that day,
He would be the final sacrifice; the price of our sin he would pay.
They stood holding Him in the Temple, a building firm and sound,
Yet His body was the true temple razed to be raised from the ground.
Simeon’s frail hands lifted up the One who would be lifted high,
The One who would live a perfect life only our death to die.
The Redeemed hugged the Redeemer in an embrace of humble love,
For this was Jesus, God come down, the Provision of Peace from above.
Hope deferred may make the heart sick, this Simeon could tell,
But Desire coming is the tree of life; Jesus makes all things well.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, this he knew too well,
Waiting for the consolation of which all the Scriptures tell.
Simeon, in the Temple of the Lord, daily watched and waited
For the Savior he was to meet before his life on earth abated.
The Holy Spirit had filled him and promised him this peace,
Lighting in his soul a burning hope that simply would not cease.
His young, sharp eyes with age grew dim, straining still to see
The Word of God he so revered, the Messiah who would be.
His hands once strong now feeble, in old age still fought to cling
To the Spirit’s promise that his eyes would see the coming King.
He was known to be devout and righteous; his life had proved this true;
Yet there he was still waiting while his remaining days were few.
His weary eyes were tired, but even more so was his heart,
Longing to see the Lord’s anointed and thence in peace depart.
Had he heard it wrong? Was the promise merely hopeful delusion?
Had decades of faithful service and waiting led only to confusion?
Interrupting his wrestling, two simple Nazarenes drew near,
Carrying their newborn son, filled with deep and reverent fear.
They came to obey the custom, but for a lamb they could not pay,
So for the firstborn’s consecration, two pigeons would be offered today.
Simeon saw the approaching family and knew without a doubt,
This was the Christ, the Chosen One, Who the Word had told about.
At once his eyes glittered and his tense heart was finally at rest,
As he held the fragile baby so close to his shaking chest.
Looking to God, as tears streamed down his wrinkled cheek,
He praised the One, who being strong had willfully become weak.
God sent the promised salvation; He had been true to His word;
This child would open His kingdom to Gentiles who had not heard.
By grace Simeon was able to understand what so few others could;
This child’s perfect life would bring him to a shameful cross of wood.
Though they would make a sacrifice to consecrate him that day,
He would be the final sacrifice; the price of our sin he would pay.
They stood holding Him in the Temple, a building firm and sound,
Yet His body was the true temple razed to be raised from the ground.
Simeon’s frail hands lifted up the One who would be lifted high,
The One who would live a perfect life only our death to die.
The Redeemed hugged the Redeemer in an embrace of humble love,
For this was Jesus, God come down, the Provision of Peace from above.
Hope deferred may make the heart sick, this Simeon could tell,
But Desire coming is the tree of life; Jesus makes all things well.
Week 3: Waiting with the Spirit
Day One: Waiting with Purpose
Christ’s first coming pioneered a beach head of the kingdom of God (the inaugurated kingdom) on earth. However, the kingdom is not yet fully established and will not be complete until His second coming (the consummated kingdom). As such, the kingdom of God on earth is both already and not yet. It is here in seed form, but not fully grown and matured. In the meantime, we, as His adopted children and ambassadors on earth, have great purpose for our lives. We are called to be a foretaste of the kingdom of God, pointers to the Kingdom as it will be one day. We are also called to proclaim God’s Good News that the kingdom is open to any and all who will believe in and lean on the perfect life, undeserved death and glorious Resurrection of Christ.
Often times, it is easy to forget that we are left on earth with a real purpose beyond surviving or seeking our own self-gratification.
Read Titus 2:11-14
This entire section of Scripture flows out from the first verse, "For the grace of God has appeared."
What does Paul mean that the grace of God has appeared? How and when did the grace of God in the person of Christ become the operative factor in your life?
While Paul was quick to proclaim the grace of God in the person of Christ, he was also not afraid to say that while grace meets us where we are, it does not leave us there. Contrary to popular belief, even and especially among Christians, grace does not mean we have free ticket to sin and do whatever we want, presuming upon God’s forgiveness. When grace really takes root in our lives, we are changed. Where do we see the transformative power of grace in these Scriptures?
Paul’s word to Titus, grounded in the past, had power for the present only because of the future.
Where do you see the future in this passage?
How does this passage change the way you think about waiting with great purpose for Christ’s Second Coming?
Day Two: Waiting with Hope
In her poem Hope, Emily Dickinson perfectly captures the resilient quality of hope that humanity holds.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.
While the poem is beautiful and captures a broad and generic sense of the hope that humanity
experiences, Christian hope is so much more clear and specific.
Our hope is not in some hazy idea of a better life, nor is it merely a sense of optimistic wishful
thinking. Christian hope is founded upon the Word of God and anchored into the person and
character of our Triune God.
At the end of his life, John wrote 3 letters to the Church as an aging Apostle. In these letters,
written from a grandfatherly care for the still young Churches, John reminds them repeatedly of
the love that God has clearly shown in the person of Christ. He also bids them look to their future
hope.
Read 1 John 2:28-29 & 1 John 3:1-3
Where do you see John talking about the future hope of the Christian here?
To what specific things does John attach the hopes of these young Churches?
What do you find yourself hoping for most deeply and most often?
How can you cultivate a distinctly Christian hope while you wait and wrestle in the already/not yet kingdom of God here and now?
Day Three: Waiting with Groaning
In our Amazon Prime and UberEats culture, waiting has become fairly effortless and passive. We click a button and then wait a short time for our desired item(s) to be delivered to our doorstep. As such, we tend to think of the process of waiting as an incredibly passive act.
Biblical waiting is an active term. It implies straining, working, arranging and posturing ourselves while we wait. We are not called to sit on our salvation twiddling our thumbs until Christ returns. We are called to actively long for Him, to begin to live His kingdom here and now, to invite others into His presence and to posture ourselves for Him to show up as we wait.
Read Romans 8:18-25
What does Paul have to say about waiting in these Scriptures?
How does the kind of waiting Paul describes seem different from your idea of waiting?
What are some aspects of our culture, problems in our society or pains in your life that make you groan and long for Christ’s return?
What are some ways to actively wait and serve in those specific areas you mentioned?
Day Four: Waiting with Long-suffering
Remember road trips as a child? If you don’t, you can come hop in my family’s car on our next long trip. I promise that within 20 minutes of leaving our house, you will hear a chorus of children, in rounds, asking, “Are we there yet?”, “How much longer?”, and “Are we ever going to get there?”.
While we have hopefully matured in our road trip behavior as adults, many of us remain deeply impatient when it comes to God’s time table. We may start off in a hopeful, active waiting posture, but, as weeks, months or years go by, we begin to lose heart and lose hope.
Describe a time in your life when you lost heart in the midst of long waiting.
Habakkuk, a minor prophet who lived around the same time as the major prophet Jeremiah, ministered in a harrowing time in Israel’s history. The book bearing his name in the Old Testament is a unique book because it does not have an oracle or a message to be directly delivered from the prophet to the people; rather, it is a dialogue between Habakkuk and God. Habakkuk does not understand why God has allowed so much sin to intertwined into the life of His people. He also wrestles with how a good God could allow the Babylonians and other nations to oppress God’s people. He longs for God to show up and make things right. His wrestling with God ends with a committed hope, a decision to trust in God even when things seem to be at the worst.
Read Habakkuk 3:16-19
What imagery does the prophet use to describe His/Israel’s current situation?
What can help us to hold fast to God and His promises in seasons of long waiting?
Christ’s first coming pioneered a beach head of the kingdom of God (the inaugurated kingdom) on earth. However, the kingdom is not yet fully established and will not be complete until His second coming (the consummated kingdom). As such, the kingdom of God on earth is both already and not yet. It is here in seed form, but not fully grown and matured. In the meantime, we, as His adopted children and ambassadors on earth, have great purpose for our lives. We are called to be a foretaste of the kingdom of God, pointers to the Kingdom as it will be one day. We are also called to proclaim God’s Good News that the kingdom is open to any and all who will believe in and lean on the perfect life, undeserved death and glorious Resurrection of Christ.
Often times, it is easy to forget that we are left on earth with a real purpose beyond surviving or seeking our own self-gratification.
Read Titus 2:11-14
This entire section of Scripture flows out from the first verse, "For the grace of God has appeared."
What does Paul mean that the grace of God has appeared? How and when did the grace of God in the person of Christ become the operative factor in your life?
While Paul was quick to proclaim the grace of God in the person of Christ, he was also not afraid to say that while grace meets us where we are, it does not leave us there. Contrary to popular belief, even and especially among Christians, grace does not mean we have free ticket to sin and do whatever we want, presuming upon God’s forgiveness. When grace really takes root in our lives, we are changed. Where do we see the transformative power of grace in these Scriptures?
Paul’s word to Titus, grounded in the past, had power for the present only because of the future.
Where do you see the future in this passage?
How does this passage change the way you think about waiting with great purpose for Christ’s Second Coming?
Day Two: Waiting with Hope
In her poem Hope, Emily Dickinson perfectly captures the resilient quality of hope that humanity holds.
“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -
And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -
I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.
While the poem is beautiful and captures a broad and generic sense of the hope that humanity
experiences, Christian hope is so much more clear and specific.
Our hope is not in some hazy idea of a better life, nor is it merely a sense of optimistic wishful
thinking. Christian hope is founded upon the Word of God and anchored into the person and
character of our Triune God.
At the end of his life, John wrote 3 letters to the Church as an aging Apostle. In these letters,
written from a grandfatherly care for the still young Churches, John reminds them repeatedly of
the love that God has clearly shown in the person of Christ. He also bids them look to their future
hope.
Read 1 John 2:28-29 & 1 John 3:1-3
Where do you see John talking about the future hope of the Christian here?
To what specific things does John attach the hopes of these young Churches?
What do you find yourself hoping for most deeply and most often?
How can you cultivate a distinctly Christian hope while you wait and wrestle in the already/not yet kingdom of God here and now?
Day Three: Waiting with Groaning
In our Amazon Prime and UberEats culture, waiting has become fairly effortless and passive. We click a button and then wait a short time for our desired item(s) to be delivered to our doorstep. As such, we tend to think of the process of waiting as an incredibly passive act.
Biblical waiting is an active term. It implies straining, working, arranging and posturing ourselves while we wait. We are not called to sit on our salvation twiddling our thumbs until Christ returns. We are called to actively long for Him, to begin to live His kingdom here and now, to invite others into His presence and to posture ourselves for Him to show up as we wait.
Read Romans 8:18-25
What does Paul have to say about waiting in these Scriptures?
How does the kind of waiting Paul describes seem different from your idea of waiting?
What are some aspects of our culture, problems in our society or pains in your life that make you groan and long for Christ’s return?
What are some ways to actively wait and serve in those specific areas you mentioned?
Day Four: Waiting with Long-suffering
Remember road trips as a child? If you don’t, you can come hop in my family’s car on our next long trip. I promise that within 20 minutes of leaving our house, you will hear a chorus of children, in rounds, asking, “Are we there yet?”, “How much longer?”, and “Are we ever going to get there?”.
While we have hopefully matured in our road trip behavior as adults, many of us remain deeply impatient when it comes to God’s time table. We may start off in a hopeful, active waiting posture, but, as weeks, months or years go by, we begin to lose heart and lose hope.
Describe a time in your life when you lost heart in the midst of long waiting.
Habakkuk, a minor prophet who lived around the same time as the major prophet Jeremiah, ministered in a harrowing time in Israel’s history. The book bearing his name in the Old Testament is a unique book because it does not have an oracle or a message to be directly delivered from the prophet to the people; rather, it is a dialogue between Habakkuk and God. Habakkuk does not understand why God has allowed so much sin to intertwined into the life of His people. He also wrestles with how a good God could allow the Babylonians and other nations to oppress God’s people. He longs for God to show up and make things right. His wrestling with God ends with a committed hope, a decision to trust in God even when things seem to be at the worst.
Read Habakkuk 3:16-19
What imagery does the prophet use to describe His/Israel’s current situation?
What can help us to hold fast to God and His promises in seasons of long waiting?
Week 4: Waiting for Christ’s Second Coming
Day One: Strangers & Exiles
In the nights before Christ was about to Crucified, He prepared His disciples for the rough departure and relational rupture that was about to take place. In John 14: 1-4, Christ told His disciples that He would be leaving them to go prepare a place for them. Then he says, "And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."
Here, Christ was not referring to the time in between His Resurrection and Ascension when He would briefly be with them again; rather, He was referring to our forever home in our forever city with the forever and unhindered presence of Christ. Christ made it clear to His disciples then and now that this world is not our ultimate home.
Where are you tempted to live on this earth like it is your ultimate home? What reminds you that this world is not the home for which we are longing?
Read Hebrews 11:13-16
Keep in mind that these verses fall in the midst of the Hall of Faith, a listing of men and women who honored God by living and walking by faith. What made these men and women different?
Did the men and women Paul was referring to always end up with a happy ending here on earth?
Day Two: Sowing Tears, Reaping Joy
Generally speaking, we are moving further and further away from agrarian culture being mainstream. As such, we may not be able to see as naturally the beauty of the imagery of reaping and sowing. However, anyone who has even attempted to plant a garden bed understands that the time between sowing and reaping is long.
Describe a time in your life when you waited long to reap the harvest of an intentional investment (financial, educational, relational, etc.).
Read Psalm 126
What imagery does the Psalmist use to describe the current situation of God’s people? The future situation of God’s people?
So often in this life, God’s people look like the people the Psalmist described: sowing with tears, suffering, struggling, poor and empty. The world looks upon our way of life with the Cross at the center as foolishness. But God promises that those who trust Him and live according to His word will enjoy sheaves of joy and laughter one day.
Where are you currently sowing in tears? How can you keep the coming harvest of joy in front of you?
Day Three: The Way of Holiness
In order to live faithfully as Christ followers in the already / not yet and to continue actively waiting and longing for Christ’s Second Coming, we need theological imagination. Because our problems and our struggles are so very tangible and real, measurable and weighty, It takes time and thought to concentrate on the even more real promises of God. It takes work and intentionality to set the joy of the Second Coming and the New Heavens and the New Earth before us.
Through the prophet Isaiah, God gives a stepping stool to boost our imaginations over the wall of this earth. Using imagery and word pictures, God spoke a future hope over His people.
Read Isaiah 35
What images, ideas or words stuck out to you? What was comforting? Challenging?
Remember that the book of Isaiah was not a high point in Israel’s history. These promises seemed incredibly impossible and unrealistic in light of the cultural, political and religious setting in which they were spoken.
Do you find it hard to believe that a day like this will be coming, when all will be set right again (mankind with God, mankind with mankind, mankind with himself and mankind with the earth)? What makes you most excited about the Second Coming of Christ and the New Heavens and New Earth He will usher in forever?
Day Four: The Grand Finale
As any good writer knows, good stories come full circle. As such, it is no surprise that God, the greatest Author and Creator, brings the Biblical narrative full circle. In the first two chapters of Genesis, the story began with shalom (wholeness, peace, perfection) in the garden. Adam and Eve were with God in the garden, free and unhindered in their connection to Him. They were related perfectly with one another and the earth. All was well.
From Genesis 3 to the end of the Bible, we see the epic story of God making right what man made wrong in his choice of autonomy over God’s loving and rightful authority.
It is only right, then that we see the Bible close with shalom re-established. While we are no longer in a garden, we are in a city, one made perfectly by God, the Builder and the Architect.
Read Revelation 21:1-8 & Revelation 22
What stood out to you in these Scriptures? Why did that resonate with you?
If we want to live our days on this earth well, we must remember that this is not the end. God has a glorious hope for those who walk with Him and submit to His word.
Where and when do you find yourself forgetting the glorious end to which we are moving?
Spend some time praying that God will make real to you the hope we have in Him. He is infinitely worth the wait! In the meanwhile, seek to live a purposed, Spirit-empowered while you wait.
In the nights before Christ was about to Crucified, He prepared His disciples for the rough departure and relational rupture that was about to take place. In John 14: 1-4, Christ told His disciples that He would be leaving them to go prepare a place for them. Then he says, "And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."
Here, Christ was not referring to the time in between His Resurrection and Ascension when He would briefly be with them again; rather, He was referring to our forever home in our forever city with the forever and unhindered presence of Christ. Christ made it clear to His disciples then and now that this world is not our ultimate home.
Where are you tempted to live on this earth like it is your ultimate home? What reminds you that this world is not the home for which we are longing?
Read Hebrews 11:13-16
Keep in mind that these verses fall in the midst of the Hall of Faith, a listing of men and women who honored God by living and walking by faith. What made these men and women different?
Did the men and women Paul was referring to always end up with a happy ending here on earth?
Day Two: Sowing Tears, Reaping Joy
Generally speaking, we are moving further and further away from agrarian culture being mainstream. As such, we may not be able to see as naturally the beauty of the imagery of reaping and sowing. However, anyone who has even attempted to plant a garden bed understands that the time between sowing and reaping is long.
Describe a time in your life when you waited long to reap the harvest of an intentional investment (financial, educational, relational, etc.).
Read Psalm 126
What imagery does the Psalmist use to describe the current situation of God’s people? The future situation of God’s people?
So often in this life, God’s people look like the people the Psalmist described: sowing with tears, suffering, struggling, poor and empty. The world looks upon our way of life with the Cross at the center as foolishness. But God promises that those who trust Him and live according to His word will enjoy sheaves of joy and laughter one day.
Where are you currently sowing in tears? How can you keep the coming harvest of joy in front of you?
Day Three: The Way of Holiness
In order to live faithfully as Christ followers in the already / not yet and to continue actively waiting and longing for Christ’s Second Coming, we need theological imagination. Because our problems and our struggles are so very tangible and real, measurable and weighty, It takes time and thought to concentrate on the even more real promises of God. It takes work and intentionality to set the joy of the Second Coming and the New Heavens and the New Earth before us.
Through the prophet Isaiah, God gives a stepping stool to boost our imaginations over the wall of this earth. Using imagery and word pictures, God spoke a future hope over His people.
Read Isaiah 35
What images, ideas or words stuck out to you? What was comforting? Challenging?
Remember that the book of Isaiah was not a high point in Israel’s history. These promises seemed incredibly impossible and unrealistic in light of the cultural, political and religious setting in which they were spoken.
Do you find it hard to believe that a day like this will be coming, when all will be set right again (mankind with God, mankind with mankind, mankind with himself and mankind with the earth)? What makes you most excited about the Second Coming of Christ and the New Heavens and New Earth He will usher in forever?
Day Four: The Grand Finale
As any good writer knows, good stories come full circle. As such, it is no surprise that God, the greatest Author and Creator, brings the Biblical narrative full circle. In the first two chapters of Genesis, the story began with shalom (wholeness, peace, perfection) in the garden. Adam and Eve were with God in the garden, free and unhindered in their connection to Him. They were related perfectly with one another and the earth. All was well.
From Genesis 3 to the end of the Bible, we see the epic story of God making right what man made wrong in his choice of autonomy over God’s loving and rightful authority.
It is only right, then that we see the Bible close with shalom re-established. While we are no longer in a garden, we are in a city, one made perfectly by God, the Builder and the Architect.
Read Revelation 21:1-8 & Revelation 22
What stood out to you in these Scriptures? Why did that resonate with you?
If we want to live our days on this earth well, we must remember that this is not the end. God has a glorious hope for those who walk with Him and submit to His word.
Where and when do you find yourself forgetting the glorious end to which we are moving?
Spend some time praying that God will make real to you the hope we have in Him. He is infinitely worth the wait! In the meanwhile, seek to live a purposed, Spirit-empowered while you wait.