Category: Devotionals

Thank you for staying with me throughout this Advent series on HOPE. This time, we will find yet another result of our hope in Christ.

I mentioned a friend of mine who is recovering from COVID. She hasn’t had energy to do any holiday shopping. Like others who have contracted this awful virus, she is still dealing with the residual effects of COVID. She tried walking to our mailboxes recently and could barely make it back to her apartment. Her legs felt like jelly. That one brief trip exhausted her.

One of the special results of hope is renewed strength. In Isaiah 40:31, the prophet writes, “Those who hope in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”

The Apostle Paul knew what it was like to be exhausted. He had been shipwrecked, beaten, whipped, stoned. Yet in 2 Cor. 4:16-18, he encouraged his readers with these words: “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long . . . So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

Are you exhausted from exploring the malls or searching the internet for just the right Christmas gift for that hard-to-shop-for person on your list? Take a moment to pray and ask God to renew not merely your body but also your spirit. (And it is okay to ask Him for help in finding that perfect gift idea!)

Have you finished your shopping? Wrapped your gifts? Mailed them off? No? Feeling tense? Take a few moments here to sit down with a hot cup of cocoa and read another Advent devotional on HOPE.

After months of sheltering in place, many people living alone are experiencing forms of stress and depression, and not just because they haven’t bought all their Christmas gifts or won’t be able to have their usual family gatherings. Many people have become anxious about stepping outside their own door. Even pets can become clingy during this period. With all this as a backdrop, it is hard to imagine this Christmas being full of joy.

I felt tempted to join that crowd earlier this month. After I took a friend to get her COVID test and that test came back positive, I was asked to quarantine for fourteen days. At first, I was frustrated. I was angry. I became depressed. Why did I have to go through quarantine again? I had already had COVID. And why was I so upset? Why? Because the tears that fell reminded me of my first round of quarantine, the three weeks when my husband was in the hospital dying of COVID and I could not even visit him.

Yet scripture tells us that having happiness is one of the results of having hope. In Psalm 146:5, we learn, “Happy are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.” Again in Prov. 10:28, we read, “The hopes of the godly result in happiness.”

How can we find that happiness when everything around us seems to be rushing toward sadness? For me, happiness came from knowing I had cared for my friend when she was sick and had no one else nearby to take her to the urgent care center. Despite the subsequent quarantine, I would make the same choice again. But far more important is the hope we both share in God. Because we have hope, we now also share the happiness of seeing her well again in time to celebrate Christmas.

Is there a special Christmas gift from the Lord that you have overlooked? I “hope” you find it in your home, at work or in your neighborhood.

Yesterday, I shared some ways God protected my husband’s life, and I asked you to think about times when the Lord protected you. Now it is my turn. When I was in Mexico I took part in a five-month jungle training course. I hoped God would help me survive the rigors of the program!

One week, we all went on a river trip. We used huge dugout canoes that each held eight people. Because we had to stand up to paddle, our director warned us that if we went through rapids, hit a rock and fell out, we should fall out upstream so the canoe would not crush us. Sure enough our canoe hit a rock and one person fell out…upstream. With that person’s weight gone, the canoe was lighter and rose up and plunged downstream. We hit a dead tree trunk and another person fell out… upstream.

Then we crashed into a second rock shelf. I flew out of the canoe, landing…downstream. The director of the trip was standing in the front of our canoe, and all he could see was that the canoe, with its several tons of mahogany, had landed smack on top of me. The director’s face was white as Moses’ beard.

But by some miracle, my heavy paddle was still in my hand and came between me and the oncoming canoe, creating a wedge that took the brunt of the impact. The Lord protected me from being crushed or paralyzed. I quickly clambered out and stood up with a shout of praise. As I continued through those five months of training, the Lord saved my life multiple times, from fires, horse hooves, snakes and even explosions. Each time I praised God for his watchful care.

One of the other results of having hope in God is praise. As Psalm 71:14 says, “I will keep on hoping for you to help me; I will praise you more and more!” This Christmas, are you praising him more and more?

Only one more week of Advent! Thanks for staying with me as we study the theme of HOPE.

A year ago, my husband Gene stayed with three of our grandsons for several days while their mother and father were away on a trip. Each day, Gene hoped to have a brief devotional time with the boys and share a story about how God had protected his life. As a child, Gene broke through the ice while walking on a local pond. As a college student, he fell asleep at the wheel of his VW bug and ran into the guardrails, totaling his vehicle, but not sustaining bodily injury. When up in a small plane flying over the Grand Canyon, his friend – the pilot! – fainted; Gene had to pilot the plane until his friend revived.

On the last day of his visit, as Gene prepared to leave my daughter’s house for our home, he was cleaning snow off his car. Suddenly he heard a loud CRACK above his head. A huge branch from a pine tree fell 30 feet and landed just a yard from where he was standing, missing both him and the car. One of the boys saw what happened and called out, “I guess God just saved your life again!”

When we hope in God, one of the other rewards of hope is God’s daily protection. In Psalm 33:16-19, the psalmist warns us, “The best-equipped army cannot save a king, . . .Don’t count on your warhorse to give you victory – for in all its strength, it cannot save you – but the Lord watches over those who fear him, over those who hope in his unfailing love. He rescues them from death.” When we hope in God, his eye is watching over us right now, not waiting until we safely arrive in heaven.

Think back today to times when God has protected you in the past and brought you safely to this day. Could you tell a story about one of those events to someone who needs encouragement to hope in God this Christmas?

Take a seat and let’s continue our trip through Advent. We still have more rewards of HOPE to discover!

My son John delights in his children. He tosses little Lydia in the air and she whoops with excitement. When he builds complex Rube Goldberg-type ramps with Ruthie and Heidi, their eyes glow with pleasure as the marbles roll through tunnels and over bridges, dash through spinners and knock down dominoes, only to then send a matchbox car racing across the room. John gets as much pleasure out of these activities as his girls.

What does this have to do with our theme of hope? We’ve seen that hope allows us to experience God’s care when we face troubles today, not just in the future. As we begin a new week, we see another result of hope: the assurance that, the Father loves us not in a remote sort of abstract way, but he delights in his children. God delights in us. Psalm 147:10,11 says, “The strength of a horse does not impress [God]; how puny in his sight is the strength of a man. Rather, the Lord’s delight is in those who honor him, in those who put their hope in his unfailing love.” And as Zephaniah 3:17 puts it, “He will exult over you by singing a happy song.”

What could be better than having the Sovereign Lord of the Universe delight in us? We don’t have to wait until we walk into heaven to see his smile and hear his laugh. When we put our hope in him we can experience those right now.

Can you think of a happy Christmas carol that you could sing today that might encourage those around you? You will find it encourages you too!

Returning to learn another reward of HOPE? Read on!

When I was a child, our family had a summer home by a lake in New England. Violent electrical storms would sometimes whip up waves on the lake and strike trees along the shore. On those evenings, my parents would turn on our kerosene lamps and gather us children on the porch of our home. There, snuggled under quilts and watching the lightning play on the water, I felt secure. With my parents’ arms around me, I sensed their love and protection.

When we know God’s forgiveness and have hope for the future, we not only have new confidence (see yesterday’s post), but we are able to experience God’s incredible love that surrounds us. In Psalm 33, the psalmist gives a long list of things God does for those “who hope for his lovingkindness.” These blessings include delivering us from death, keeping us safe from famine, being our help and shield, and giving us joy. But the psalm concludes by saying, “Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone.” Because of our hope is in him, he puts his arms around us and hugs us with his love.

During COVID, health department officials have repeatedly asked us to socially distance ourselves. No hugs! My daughter was out of state, but she mailed a homemade card to me. When I opened it, there was a photo of my daughter and paper arms popped open to give me a hug. Is there someone you know who needs a hug? Share a measure of God’s immense love with that person today. If you can’t hug, pass on a tasty gift of chocolate!

Glad you have returned for today’s Advent devotional. Are you ready for another gift that comes along with HOPE?

A person who has forgiveness for their past and hope for the future also enjoys confidence to face whatever lies before them today. Many places, where older translations of the Bible used the word ‘hope,’ the newer translations now use ‘confidence.’ For example, it says in 1 Thes. 5:8, “Let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation.” And again in Titus 3:7, “Because of his grace, he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.”

Long ago, I memorized Psalm 27. The psalmist cries out and says that the only thing he hopes for – the thing he most yearns for – is to spend all the days of his life delighting in the Lord’s presence. But he also declares that when troubles come, when enemies advance against him and when armies surround him, even then he will be confident. And he ends the psalm declaring again, “I am confident that I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living.” Not just sometime in the future, but right now, in the land of the living!

This past year, my son John took on heavy responsibilities as head of his math department at a large high school. With COVID raging, he has had to support all his teachers as they transitioned to on-line learning. Early in the Fall semester, John lost his father to COVID. Then recently, John’s basement has had to be jack-hammered to replace old iron pipes that have rusted and become clogged. The stress could overwhelm him, but, like the psalmist, John has confidence that God will not forsake him in the day of trouble.

How about you? Make a list of all the causes of stress that weigh you down this season. Then take a large marking pen and write the word ‘confidence’ across the list. Confidence for today is an offshoot of our hope for tomorrow!

We are now halfway through Advent! Are you ready for another devotional thought about HOPE?

Hope can be a very abstract concept. It is all very well to hope for something that will occur far in the future and even have faith that one day it might come to pass, but what about the situations we face right now? How does having hope impact our life today in 2020?

Imagine, for example, that, despite our hope, we had to wait until we got to Heaven to know for sure that we have been forgiven. What a heavy burden to carry guilt day after day. But we don’t have to wait that long. We who have hope of redemption can know we have forgiveness right now.

Psalm 130:4,7,8 tells us, “There is forgiveness with you, Lord. . . .O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is unfailing love. His redemption overflows. He himself will free Israel from every kind of sin.” Did you notice the grammatical tenses there? Hope speaks of a future when, yes, he will free Israel from every kind of sin, but the psalmist, along with hope, speaks of forgiveness in the present, and redemption is something that overflows in us right now!

Have you exploded in impatience this season, taking things out on those you love most? Are you weighed down thinking about all the times you have failed God, times you have disappointed him? An old Christmas carol says, “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.”

Our hope of redemption is not reserved for some vague time in the future. We do not have to carry that heavy burden of guilt with us until we the day we die and finally enter heaven’s gates. We don’t even have to wait until December 25th to open this gift from Jesus! We can experience the full joy of Christmas today because along with our hope comes the ever-present promise of God’s forgiveness. Now, whom can you forgive?

Thank you for returning here for another installment on our Advent study of HOPE.

Christmas is full of laughter and lights, shopping and songs, friends and family, but it is not a joyous time for everyone. So many have lost loved ones this year to COVID, including me.

Grief is a strange critter. It sneaks up on you at unexpected moments and then jumps out to knock the wind out of you. One moment I can be perfectly fine and then a minute later I can be in tears when a small object triggers a memory of my husband. I read an article and turn to share it with Gene and discover he is not there. I laugh when I read a joke and realize I am laughing alone. Grief could lead to depression unless we have hope.

A special blessing walks with hope: God’s comfort. Paul, in writing 1 Thess. 4:13, said those who have faith in Christ do not grieve as those without hope. Later he assured the Thessalonians in a second letter that God would console them as they faced trials: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father – who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope – comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.”

Mary and Joseph experienced stress as they made do with shelter in a stable and placed their newborn son in a manger, but they also sensed God’s comfort. I have experienced grief first hand in recent months, but I also have felt my Father’s gentle touch. That comfort makes his promises about heaven more real, my hope more firm.

Who in your world has suffered a sad loss this year? Does a neighbor need a word of comfort in their first Christmas season alone? Make a phone call. Pass along the hope and comfort that lie within you!

Thanks for coming back to learn more about HOPE through this Advent series of devotionals.

Did you ever make up a Christmas wish list when you were a child? Most of us grew up also making a wish before blowing out the candles on our birthday cake. As we go through this study on hope, have you wondered what the difference is between wishing and hoping?

When I asked Google about the difference, I got this reply: “The difference between hoping and wishing is that hope comes from real, objective reasons that the future is going to be different from the past. Anything other than that is simply a wish that comes from your desires.”

Yesterday, we saw that patience is an important element of hope, but there is another element that is fundamental, and it separates hope from a mere wish. What is that other element that walks with patience and hope? Faith! As Hebrews 11:1 says, “What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.” I like that definition. Confident assurance!

None of us have yet seen Heaven, yet we believe that it is objectively real and we will go there one day. When that day arrives, we will no longer need either faith or hope. Both will already be fulfilled in Heaven. That is why, in 1 Corinthians 13:13, we see that three things are essential – faith, hope and love – but the greatest of these is love. Why? Because love alone continues on through eternity.

Take time today to close your eyes. You can’t see the things in the room around you, but are they any less real? Let’s fix our hope on those things we cannot yet see but which are no less real!