December 11, 2021 - Advent Devotion
This Week:
Today, December 11, 2021 - 10:00am-11:30am:
Children’s Christmas Program Dress Rehearsal
Tomorrow, Sunday, December 12, 2021:
Join us for “Get Ready, for the Real Story,” a Lord of Life children’s Christmas program!
Share this event with family and friends so they can join us in person or live stream from the broadcast on Lord of Life LIVE, right in the event page!
On Jordan's banks the Baptist's cry
Announces that the Lord is nigh
Awake and hearken for he brings
Glad tidings of the King of kings.
Then cleansed be ev'ry life from sin
Make straight the way for God within
And let us all our hearts prepare
For Christ to come and enter there
All praise to you eternal Son
Whose advent has our freedom won
Whom with the Father we adore
And Holy Spirit evermore
“... As it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth;and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’””
"The Lord is nigh." "Awake and hearken." "Let us all our hearts prepare, for Christ to come and enter there."
As our second week of Advent comes to a close, we are invited to ask ourselves not how we best get ready, but what it is and who it is we are getting ready for this Christmas, and throughout our walk of discipleship?
It is so easy to start off the journey each year, to even start each new day, with energy and spirit, and then find ourselves far off course, to be, a voice crying out into the wilderness.
This season, and our spiritual life, can easily become more about who is coming to dinner, and how to best buy for those on our list, or how best to meet the expectations of others, than for us to "prepare the way of the Lord."
Let us trust that while time is short, it is never too late to ask The One we are getting ready for, to get us ready, to "make straight the way for God within!"
Let us pray: King of kings, Father who we adore, Holy Spirit, renew us to prepare the way for you in the wilderness of our daily lives and in the wilderness of all the details of Advent this year. Give us a spirit and a faith to surrender it all into your care, as we trust Christ to come and enter here. Fill us with hope far as the curse is found to praise The Son whose advent, whose arrival, has our freedom won. As we pray, we give thanks to God who prepares all things for heaven and nature to sing. Amen.
