Isaiah 40:1-5 says to “prepare the way for the Lord” – to make straight paths for our God. On this first week of Advent, we focus on “hope”. By definition, hope means a feeling of expectation or desire for something to happen.

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is less than 4 weeks away. But as we begin this season of Advent, we have an expectation for Jesus – an anticipation for His birth as God’s glory is revealed. So instead of hoping for that thing you didn’t get during Thanksgiving weekend, or hoping for other things this Christmas, let us put our hope in Christ. Let us put our faith in God’s promise, believing, so that we will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As we start with Advent Week 1, may we make straight paths for the Lord, clearing away all the distractions of what the mall might make us think of Christmas. Instead, may we make Christmas about Christ, as it should be.

Reflection Song: Prepare The Way

Advent Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

In the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, God uses Moses to lead the Israelite slaves out from Egypt. Yet on the fifteenth day of the second month since they came out of Egypt, all the Israelites did was complain to Moses:

“If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.” (Exodus 16:3)

How quickly their celebration in freedom turned to complaint! Moses reassures the people that God hears their grumbling and surely, soon after, God provided manna and quail. But really, what good was their grumbling and complaining? Of course our God who freed them would surely provide, if not already! God who showed His power through ten plagues. God who parted the Red Sea. God who delivered them from bondage and oppression. Their grumbling was part of their forgetfulness: “if only we had stayed”, “if only we had food to eat”, “if only”, “if only”, “if only”… “If only” they remembered God’s provision! I mean, how could they forget?

With Christmas just around the corner, it’s easy for us to overlook Thanksgiving and what we’re thankful for. Time to time, we might find ourselves grumbling with complaints, regrets, or even “if only I could get this or that for Christmas”. There’s no need to look back on our lives and think how it “could be”. Let’s not forget to be grateful for what God has done, is doing, and will do in our lives. It’s not a matter of “if only” – since we are in Christ, all things are possible with God and through God.

Hopefully the only grumbling this Thanksgiving will be coming from our stomachs before dinner. Let’s be thankful: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Here are some verses that can help us focus on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross today:

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24)

He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. (Mark 8:31)

“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)

It is a Good Friday.