No better time than right now, to stop, and unwrap the gift of hope.
December has arrived and with it all the obvious cues that Christmas is coming—just in case any of us missed the mass push of commercialism coming at us for the past two months. The count down is on, my friend!
How about this, let’s just breathe…
I want to invite you today to join me on a little pilgrimage. Every year I do this and I call it, the Advent Journey. It’s a contemplative practice that, for me, intentionally re-calibrates the soul and prepares the way for the more of Jesus.
I love the practices of Advent because they intentionally help slow it all down. And, who doesn’t need a little bit of that at this time of year? Oh, it’s so much more than just lighting the candles on a Sunday morning while scripture is read, followed by a congregational response.
The journey of advent tends the soul as we encounter each moment of each day, remembering and anticipating all at the same time. And all that remembering and expectation? It leads to hope.
And that’s where we’ll start the journey, unwrapping this gift of hope, as we walk down the road to Christmas. Let’s begin by asking ourselves, what is hope?
What is hope?
Too often, hope is reduced to just a feeling and while I don’t deny we can feel hopeful, it is more. The verb definition of hope is this: to look forward to with desire…to believe, desire, or trust. 1 I think it’s helpful when we take the full meaning of the word and weave it together because it helps us move beyond one narrow perspective.
We hope, based on the facts we believe, which means, ultimately, hope is choice. I love this because it means, we don’t have to wait for the feelings to overcome circ*mstances, we can choose hope based on God—His power, His nature, and His character.
And the road to Christmas is full of hope stories that point to the gift of hope that God gives. He knew, long before the beginning of time, that you and I would need something to hold onto—something to spur us along—and so He has always spoken words of love that lead to a better way.
The gift of hope is full of expectation, which stirs the heart with a hunger for more—because that’s the economy of the kingdom of God. If you want more of Him you have to commune with Him and that’s only possible when we unwrap the gift of hope.
Do you see it? Hope is an active standing and waiting. It looks forward, but it holds its place, steadfast in trust. This gift opens the way for more.
I know it sounds an awful lot like faith, but I think there is a subtle nuance. Faith believes even when it can’t see, but hope? Hope roots itself in God—in His power and might—producing a living faith. Really, we need both.
What does prophecy have to do with the gift of hope?
I have great memories celebrating Advent as a little girl. When I was little it meant counting down the days until Christmas. We had a re-usable calendar that Mom hung beside the telephone in the kitchen. It had all the days until Christmas marked on it and a place to tie a hard candy for each day. My brother and I took turns; it was awesome.
As children, we don’t often need much help in the area of imagination and wonder, do we? I suspect that’s exactly why Jesus teaches us that in order to enter the kingdom of God we must become childlike (Mark 10:15).
Here’s the thing, I believe God sets us up just like my Mom did, to help direct our hearts toward the most important gift ever. He has been speaking to his people from the very start, knowing we would need His revelation to lead us toward his heart. We live in a broken world fraught with more distractions we can count, so these words of guidance and direction are a gift of hope, which feeds the soul—kind of like the hard candy.
So, let’s take a little look at the hope story through the eyes of the prophet Isaiah and see what wisdom and words of hope they might have for us in our modern, yet still broken world.
The gift of hope given through prophecy
Unwrapping the gift of hope means looking at the words God spoke. The gift, you see, rests in the revelation. God knew they needed it then and that we would need it now. Isn’t He marvelous?
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” Isaiah 9:2
Isaiah spoke of the Messiah, who would bring salvation not just to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles. If that doesn’t scream hope, I don’t know what does!
One of the things I love about the word of God is that it is alive. This is a passage I have read a hundred times, yet as I read it this past week if feels new again. As I walked through this passage I found the Lord drawing me to the aspects of His character and nature in the midst of his revelation to Isaiah. In the reading and meditating I felt the Lord saying to me: remember who I am.
There is much remembering of the story of Christ’s birth, which is good—we need to—but sometimes it can all get a little cloudy with the secularity that has been woven into the holiday. Christmas is not about presents, turkey dinner with all the trimmings, Christmas trees, decorations, parties, or even family, it’s about Jesus. Theses traditions have been designed to help us celebrate, but when we allow them to overshadow Jesus, we totally miss the point.
And so, God says, “Remember, who I am.”
God is Mighty
“You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.” Isaiah 9:3-5
The only time Israel was successful in battle, was when they yielded to God. That reference to the day of Midian is all about Gideon, the Judge who defeated the enemy with God and a hundred men (Judges 6-8).
We have a tendency to go, rogue when facing challenging situations. Some of those situations are way beyond our capacity to manage, but the reality is God doesn’t want us to manage anything on our own. We were created in his image, for the purpose of intimate communion. The bottom line, is we work better when we are connected to Him. Connection with the Father begins with surrender.
I love that God’s word through Isaiah is a reminder of His power and might—of what HE is capable of doing when we choose to trust him. That’s the lesson—choosing to trust God’s power and might, unwraps the gift of hope, which gives us firm standing.
God is faithful
“For to us a child a born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6
Can we, just for a minute, look at the names listed there?
Wonderful Counselor.
Mighty God.
Everlasting Father.
Prince of Peace.
There is such faithful care in the promise of those names. We should meditate on those for the rest of Advent—that a Savior would come bringing wonderful counsel, power, faithful intimacy and shalom, is beyond astounding. The promise God is giving is for complete salvation, not just freedom from enemy oppressors.
The faithfulness of God toward us, his sons and daughters, is almost too amazing to believe. What a gift of hope! It really is miraculous—perhaps we should upgrade our vision of that (to see the miracle) so that we continue to hope for the more.
God is Immutable
“Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” Isaiah 9:7
Immutable means, unchanging. God doesn’t change. He is the same as when He created the earth as He is now, and will be forevermore. He is good and righteous, and that will increase. Shalom—completeness, and wholeness—is God’s standard and it will increase too. This child born to us? He is Jesus.
The Messiah, our savior, had a mission so much bigger than God’s people understood. The prophecy was spoken, heard, and remembered, even though they lacked the imagination to see beyond their own existence. But’s that okay. God knew the word was needed, so He released the gift of hope, trusting it to His chosen ones, knowing the testimony would be carried from generation to generation. Because that’s the gift of hope.
We can stand in faith because of our hope in Jesus. God has not and will not waiver from His intention, because He can’t. God is unchangeable.
When we look at the prophetic word through the lens of God’s immutable nature, we can stand firm because whatever the circ*mstances are, God is still God and we can count on his mighty power, his faithfulness, and his love to be present and to lead. Because of Jesus, we have access to everything we need to overcome. That’s a gift of hope, that anchors the soul in God himself. Isn’t that awesome?
Making space for the gift of hope in our lives
The lessons from the hope story of the prophets are so powerful. Sometimes familiarity can cause us to tune out, but these Messianic prophecies speak hope, which gives life to so much more.
God, The Almighty, who is faithful and immutable, sent Jesus, the greatest gift of hope ever. Emmanuel, God with us, came to redeem and restore, and He does that as he leads (Wonderful Counselor), fights for us (Mighty God), loves us in a relationship (Everlasting Father), and pours out healing (Prince of Peace).
This Advent journey will look different for each one of us because our own lives take us through so many places, marked with different encounters. That’s okay, we can celebrate that diversity because God is in it.The important thing is that we pursue him in every encounter.
No matter where you are today, know this: you are not alone. God is indeed present, just call on His name. Invite Him into the places your heart is craving for Shalom and He will come. This is the process we walk through to know Him and to be known by Him; this is intimacy.
The intimate place of Shalom can feel scary and it certainly is hard at times, but pushing through the scary and the hard is undeniably worth it. When the goodness of God’s promise feels out of reach, hold onto the gift of hope given through the hope story of the prophets.
Jesus, the hope of the world.
- dictionary.com.
