ReDiscover Christmas: Hope Overflows
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “ReDiscover Christmas”
Week 1 of 4: “Hope in our Uncertainties!”
Full Sunday message: CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: ReDiscover HOPE!
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. —Romans 15:13
There was someone else there that day when Mary and Joseph brought their infant son to the temple. Another who had been faithfully watching and waiting and believing it was only a matter of time before she saw the fulfillment of God’s longstanding promise. Anna was a prophet, eighty-four years old. She had been married once, long ago, for seven years before her husband died. This would have given her a difficult life in ancient culture, making her dependent on others for a well-being that was probably then meager. None of that seemed to slow Anna down. She spent all her time in the temple, worshiping, fasting, and praying. Her service might have even been part of some official group or capacity.
Like Simeon, Anna was ready when Jesus arrived. Maybe she approached the young family at the same time as Simeon. Maybe later. Whatever the timing, her worshipful response was similar. But Luke tells us even more. Like Simeon, Anna was overjoyed to see this long-expected gift from God. She certainly must have felt fulfilled as well.
But Anna wasn’t done. Her hope overflowed, and she told everyone she could about what she had seen.
Anna’s hope is the kind described by Paul, when he prayed, “… that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Isn’t that just like hope? It’s the kind of hope we see in children on Christmas morning: expectant, unbridled, uncontainable, overflowing. And it’s the same kind from the God of hope that sustains through the ages.
Apply: How is your hope-ometer these days? What hope have you given up on that God is calling to renew in you?
(Reprinted with permission from Outreach.com “Advent Reading Plan”)
ReDiscover Christmas: Hope Sustains Us!
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “ReDiscover Christmas”
Week 1 of 4: “Hope in our Uncertainties!”
Full Sunday message: CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: ReDiscover HOPE!
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit [which] was given to us. —Romans 5:5
He had been waiting. The old man was ready. Luke calls him righteous and devout. Simeon had been faithfully serving God for decades and watching for the fulfillment of His promise to send a Messiah. Each morning, he might have asked, “Is this the day?”
Then came the day when he felt that nudge by God’s Spirit: Go to the temple. Something exciting is about to happen. I have a surprise for you.
When Simeon saw the young family across the temple courts, he knew. This was the moment he had been waiting for his whole life. He probably ran to them, taking the baby from the surprised parents, lifting him skyward, then cradling him in his arms. And Simeon worshiped. He told God he was fulfilled, content; he could now die a happy man. “For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel” (Luke 2:30-32).
Simeon is the perfect example of the man described in Jeremiah 17:7: “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD.” Simeon reminds us that hope does not disappoint. Why? Because, as Paul says, “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit [which] was given to us.” God’s never-ending love for us will always come through in God’s perfect timing. The hope of Christ will never fail us.
Apply: How would your hope compare to Simeon’s? How might you spread a sense of hope by some small expression fueled by God’s love?
(Reprinted with permission from Outreach.com “Advent Reading Plan”)
ReDiscover Christmas: When Hope Seems Gone
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “ReDiscover Christmas”
Week 1 of 4: “Hope in our Uncertainties!”
Full Sunday message: CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: ReDiscover HOPE!
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. —Isaiah 43:1-2
When commercial fisherman John Aldridge went sprawling overboard 40 miles off the coast of New York in 2017, he knew his partner, Anthony Sosinski, sleeping below deck would never hear his cries for help. When the boat motored ahead on autopilot and disappeared over the crest of a wave, Aldridge knew he was alone. As he tread water in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean without a life vest, he knew this was the way he would die.
But then he discovered that he could create an air pocket in his fishing boots. They floated. It was a flicker of hope to literally cling to. Aldridge made it through the night. He eventually spotted a fishing buoy and was able to cling to it. Twelve hours after he had fallen into the sea, a Coast Guard helicopter pulled Aldridge to safety. Against all hope, the man overboard survived.
Sometimes we just need something, one thing, to cling to in the darkness and the depths. God’s Word is filled with promises, such as Isaiah 43:1-2 above. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.” In Jeremiah 29:11, we’re told, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God has given us hope we can cling to. No matter what we are facing, we can turn to the Bible and find His words come alive to renew hope within us.
Apply: What Bible verses are speaking to you today? What Scripture can you write down or memorize as a source of renewed hope?
(Reprinted with permission from Outreach.com “Advent Reading Plan”)
ReDiscover Christmas: Hope Conquers Fear
Today’s Devotion is reprinted from “ReDiscover Christmas: Advent Reading Plan” produced by Outreach.com
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. —1 Peter 1:3-4
It was the night before the Christmas Eve service when church organist Lewis Redner came up with the tune to “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Waking in the night, he felt like he had heard the whisper of an angel, and he wrote down the melody of the beloved carol we still sing nearly 150 years later.
The lyrics were a poem written by Phillips Brooks, minister at Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia. Several years later, in 1865, Brooks had visited Bethlehem on horseback during a trip to the Holy Land. He saw shepherds tending their flocks in the countryside surrounding the small village and attended a Christmas Eve service in the Church of the Nativity. He remembered the moving experience several years later as he prepared for Christmas Eve worship. Brooks and Redner thought their combined composition would only be sung for that evening’s service, but, as we know, the song quickly spread and endured.
Among the song’s beautiful lyrics is this line: The hopes and fears of all the years / Are met in thee tonight. It’s a reminder that no matter how great the fear—even the fears of all history—the hope that Christ brings is greater. In Jesus, hope overcomes all our fears, and this hope is alive. Peter calls it a living hope. Because Christ has come to live and die and rise again, this hope of life conquers the fears of death. Because of Jesus, when fear and hope collide, hope wins.
Apply: How is fear darkening your life? How can you grab hold of this living hope in Jesus?
ReDiscover Christmas: Hope to Carry On
Today’s Devotion is reprinted from “ReDiscover Christmas: Advent Reading Plan” produced by Outreach.com
But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
—Isaiah 40:31
The pictures show him sharply dressed in a navy blue blazer, decorated with mil- itary medals, behind the walker that he uses to get around. That walker didn’t stop Captain Sir Tom Moore. Neither did his 100 years of age. Captain Tom, as he became famously known, walked 100 laps around his backyard and became a viral sensation who raised $40 million for the British health care system in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It started as a challenge from his son-in-law and went viral when posted to a fundraising website. Captain Tom’s sense of steady perseverance inspired Great Britain during a time it needed hope. “The first step was the hardest,” Captain Tom told reporters after. “After that, I got into the swing of it and kept on going.”
Isn’t that always true? The first step is always the hardest. But hope gives us the push to get going. Captain Tom began walking with the hope that he might be able to help someone. Hope spurs us to take that first step in a difficult time. Hope enables us to keep walking, one more step at a time. And hope sustains us with the vision that there is a better ending. Isaiah reminds us that
our strength is renewed when we put our hope in the Lord. The hope that Christ has brought into the world allows our spirit to soar like an eagle. It fuels us to keep walking, one step at a time.
Apply: Where is hope leading you? What is the next step God is leading you to take this Christmas season?