Wesley Advent Devotional

Here's my annual Advent devotional I wrote for Wesley. Thought I'd share.

Read 2 Samuel 7:11b-16

I think it is safe to say we’ve all experienced the feeling as children. The date is December 21 or 22 and the presents are starting to accumulate under the tree. It’s less than a week till Christmas Day, but the calendar seems to stretch on forever before Christmas Eve, much less the actual day. Some years I could feel my excitement grow so strong that it was almost a pain. Anticipation for a coming promise is a pretty arduous journey. You know it is coming yet it seems so far away.

In the text for today, God makes David a promise. He promises His anointed King to make [him] a house…to raise up offspring after [him]…to establish a kingdom. These are all promises intended to fulfill the covenant made with God’s people long ago. The interesting thing about this passage comes in the first promise: “I will give you rest from your enemies.” Yet, in my translation, the next passage is titled “David’s Wars.” I think this highlights a simple element that we’ve lost in our culture today; an element that we’ve lost in our Church today.

Our microwave society has conditioned us to expect things immediately, to look for things as soon as we ask for them, to never wait on anything. In 2 Samuel, God makes David a series of promises, but still needs David to wait, to endure, to be patient. God needs David to be faithful.

The season of Advent requires us to wait. It, however, is not an idle period. It is a period in which we fervently prepare for that which is promised to us; that pledge is the coming of a King who makes all things new.

The word Paul uses many times for patience is often translated as “long-suffering.” When we come to Christ, we are not automatically equipped to bear the cross we are called to take up. Again, we are called to be patient, called to prepare, called to love.

Advent calls us to a time of preparation for a coming promise. It is such in our day-to-day lives as well. We cannot expect the promise of sanctification, of being made holy and perfect in God’s sight, to come automatically. Christ calls us to a long, sometimes treacherous journey; He also gives us the promise of walking with Him.

In this time of celebration that is Advent, let us rejoice in the promise that God has made us in the coming King. Let us also prepare to receive that which is love, that we may be ultimately perfected in the promise of an almighty God.

Rejoice, for unto us a child is born. Hosanna!

JC