This Sunday begins the church season of Advent; a very special time of preparation and anticipation. Children make their lists and wait for Santa. Homes are decorated in anticipation of visitors. Churches get ready for Christmas Eve worship. But, if we were to pull back the curtain on all this preparation and anticipation, we would find one of the most important gifts of God's providence...hope!
Hope is something we are all desperate for. This is why we are vulnerable to so many false hopes in the world. We are so easily misguided by those who use our desire for hope to manipulate us. Have you ever gotten a piece of mail or a phone call announcing that you have won the BIG JACKPOT, or the SWEEPSTAKES? Did your adrenalin not rush for just an instant at the possibility that maybe you had in fact won? Did you not give the message a glimpse of great expectation? And, was your flash of joy not crushed in disappointment when you heard or read the fine print where it said, "If you...then..."
There it is..."If you...then..." It doesn't matter what words fill in the blanks. The promise of one thing that was hoped for is now lost, cheapened and reduced to a manipulative conditional statement. We are inundated with false promises, and they are immediately recognized by some form of this conditional phrase.
But, God doesn't make false promises. God's hope is real. God makes a promise that is a clear exclamation with no strings attached. Through the prophet Jeremiah God declares, "I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel." There is no conditional terms of agreement required from Israel before God fulfills the promise, just God declaring the time is near. With God there is no fine print.
The fulfillment of God's promise was the messiah, a baby born to a virgin in Bethlehem who was Emmanuel, God with us. He came, just as God promised. And, today, we have hope because of him.
God has no interest in manipulating us or trying to coerce us to do things a certain way. God comes to us in the humblest of ways. He inspires us, teaches us, guides us and most of all saves us and claims us as his own forever. God gives us real hope, in the promise to save us forever.
Prayer: Lord God, help me to hope only in you, with your saving grace as my big jackpot. Give me the faith to live my life into your promise, and the courage to keep the promises I make with others. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
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