Hope
Read Isaiah 9:1-7
So far this week, we’ve learned that sin has separated us from God, and we feel those effects globally, but also personally—in our relationships, jobs, school—everywhere! But God promised to send a Rescuer to save us from our sin—and He did. Jesus, God the Son, came to earth, died for our sins, rose from the grave, and now He is ruling and reigning at the right hand of God the Father until He comes again. Because of this, we have great hope and confidence—God keeps His promises and Jesus will come back one day for His people.
Despite knowing these things, we are easily distracted from them. We don’t spend much time recentering our hearts around and intentionally meditating on the hope of Jesus most of the year. We float adrift, untethered from this truth, and what is the result? Misplaced hope and confidence—trusting in things like friends, work, or our sports teams instead of Jesus.
Maybe you’ve heard sermons or had conversations about where you place your hope and why we struggle to make Jesus the answer to that question. It might feel like a tired question, but there’s a reason we ask it so often. We need to be constantly reminded of and pulled back toward Jesus and the hope we have in Him. Advent provides space and time to do that after we’ve felt ourselves wandering throughout the year. Our hearts and minds are recaptured by the story and beauty of Jesus, making it clearer than ever that when we place our hope in anything other than Him, we will certainly be let down.
Isaiah reminds us why we can so confidently place our hope in Him. The prophet wrote “the government shall be upon his shoulder” (v. 6), “[of his] peace there will be no end” (v. 7), and “on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore” (v. 7). What more could we ask for? What better place could there be for our hope?
[Matt Chandler (2021). (p. 22). Family Advent Devotional - Bible Study eBook. Lifeway Press. Retrieved from https://read.lifeway.com]