Advent

(our theme for December)

Romans 15:13 (CEB)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Too often we confuse wishes with hope.  We wish for many things: a good report from the doctor, that tomorrow will be a sunny day, or that we will hear from a friend or family member.  We might wish that a child or grandchild gets the job they have been wanting.  Yes, we wish for many things and at times we are disappointed that our wishes don’t come true. 

Hope is different from wishes.  We are even told that hope never disappoints, as wishes sometime do. In Scripture, hope always focuses us forward with confident expectation that God’s promises will be fulfilled. Advent is a time to celebrate the fulfillment of the promises of God.  God promised to send a Messiah, a savior.  In the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, the promise was fulfilled. 

In Romans Paul calls God the God of hope.  We often think of other attributes of God, like God is love.  But here, Paul says, “God is the God of hope.” Paul wanted us to face the future with confidence.  No matter what we are experiencing in life at this moment we have hope.  What are the promises that help us face into the future with joy and peace?

We are promised that God in Christ is with us.  No matter what we are facing, we are not doing it alone.  We are promised that if we believe, we will receive eternal life. This means that the worst thing that is happening to us is never God’s last word.  

This hope is not to be confused with wishful thinking. Hope is the gift of the Holy Spirit, part of the comfort we are promised by Jesus. 

I might wish that what I or a loved one is experiencing might be different.  I might wish that the world was a different and more loving and less scary and conflict-filled place.  These wishes might or might not happen. But the God of hope gives me peace because I know that the baby born in Bethlehem was one of God’s promises fulfilled. This allows me to look at today and tomorrow with confident expectation because I have the hope that God is with us, that he loves us, and that he will give us peace, joy – and yes, eternal life. 

Let us pray: 

Loving God, when we become discouraged, and our hope in you falters, remind us anew of your constant presence in our lives.  Face us forward with trust knowing that you are with us now and always.  AMEN.

This episode was written by Bill Green and read by Dwight Dockery.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.