Ahh, so, as we move into the second week of our Advent season and continue on in our preparation with Hope in our soul, we light the candle of ‘peace’ in our anticipated waiting. With so much going on in this world of ours, it’s hard to fathom any kind of peace anywhere, isn’t it? For sure not in this wide world is there any kind of peace and certainly not in ours!
Today, there’s most likely a whole bunch of us just aching for some kind of peace of mind that everything is ok and will be ok. Luke 2:14 tells us of a host of heavenly angels singing their song to shepherds, to announce His birth and share a glorious message of calm assurance! It was a powerful yet tender message of a Savior’s birth and about His sweet peace resting on His people in this unsettled earth of ours.
Glory to God in the Highest, because on that holy night a Savior came to gift us not only with Hope but with a divine PEACE and bring it close to our hearts, our minds, and into the very depths of our needy souls and selves.
So, in a day where so much unrest defies our normal life and wraps its icy fingers around our comfort zones, and at a time when world peace is at an all-time low, there is still the option of a sweet peace that passes all understanding!
Peace, ahh, don’t we need it in these days of so much uncertainty? It’s ours to step into and claim even when so many voices protest loudly and when so much is reeling out of control.
I’m so thankful it’s really there all around us all wrapped up in our Trust in the one Savior of the world. We need to step into it and just believe! It’s in our complete trust and obedience that our peace takes root. Pure, simple TRUST in Him shuts out the fear of the unknown! It cancels out the worry of what’s next and quiets the noise of chaos, because, as His child, we can know He holds us and our stuff, close to Himself as He whispers sweet peace to our soul, and it’s so lovely
Not only does our Saviour’s birth bring Hope, but His birth and very presence usher in a peace that passes all understanding! Let’s light that peace candle today.
The peace he gives is a peace that transcends the dreadful fear of “What’s next?” or ‘What’s going on?” It’s a perfect peace that the world can’t give or take away, no matter what this crazy world brings to our table. So yeah, really, as serious as this old world stands in its political balance and as controversial as issues may seem and as frightening as the world news is, it all pales in comparison to the sweet, gentle Peace that our Saviour offers to the very soul of us in our deepest distress. Because it’s all ok anyway, isn’t it? If we know this one born to deliver the world from its sin, we know we’re in good hands in His safekeeping, and as His divine prophetic plan unfolds before our eyes, it surpasses any crazy plan the world and its top leaders have in store for us.
It’s a generous gift from our Lord to us. Yea, Jesus, Our Prince of Peace, came to share Peace with us, and His sweet peace is not as the world gives but rather a sense of well-being welling up within ourselves. A peace that comes from our willingness to change and repent and do a turnabout of direction. A peace that accompanies our choice to walk with Him in His way of salvation and in His ways of abundance. It comes from simple trust in our Prince of Peace, the sweet Saviour of the broken and hurting and those beaten and scarred and torn up by sin’s choices.
So today, “Shalom”, my friends, and may His favor rest on you today as you seek Him during your Christmas festivities and find healing in Him for such a time as this.
“The LORD bless you, and keep you; The LORD make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace ”
So hey, maybe it’s time to just take a step back out of the day and out of the hectic, to look at the big picture. Is it really all that and worth getting anxious about? Is it really?
Sometimes, we get a clearer view when we distance ourselves from the activities! Grab a cup of Christmas tea and breathe through the next moment. Sometimes if we step back just a bit, we can see the facade and maybe begin to remove some of the layers, just to lay it all out before ourselves and our Saviour, in these final days of our Advent season! What ploughs through, that needs not to be so aggressive? Panic? Fear? Worry? Failure to get done what you so planned to do? Christmas isn’t about what we do or how we do it or how much we can do? It’s about enjoying precious moments with family and friends through our imperfections. It’s about forgetting the deadlines, or at least placing them into proper perspective!
So hey! This busy day you’re in, it’s time for tea and refreshment. Take time to come before the Lord and Savior and in quiet moments just light a candle ~ just you and Him alone. Let His words be a Lamp to your feet and a light to your pathway of next steps. Ask for His counsel, act on His still, quiet voice, and begin to peel away those things that shouldn’t be there cluttering up your beautiful Advent season.
“Tis a time for warm delights, family traditions, memories, and making more. Don’t let the sweet moments of the season dissipate into busy, chaotic schedules and fast-paced rituals, just because! Don’t let them sink into fearful thoughts and panic moments of ‘What’s next.” Rather, find ‘calm’ in His presence! Delight in His words and a new strength in His power!
So go ahead light that candle just between you and our Lord and find peace, find Joy, and find a love so extraordinary it will soften the harshest moments of your fear, anxiety, chaos, and strife.
“Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted, but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40: 30 31
Unwrap God’s divine Gift of JOY in the quiet silences of the moment
So much happening in our world today with so much unrest, it seems as if our world is unraveling around us very quickly. As Advent season draws nearer our own worlds become full with much to do and as the days come and go, our panic buttons become on high alert.
So, here we are today, with busy minds on shopping, baking, and decorating, and yeah, our hearts go out to so many others in the midst of bombings, shootings, and catastrophe, and on it goes. Sometimes life just isn’t fair in the big scheme of things, and when we can’t do much to help we can hold them up in prayer, and be in prayer for the ones on the job day and night to restore destroyed lands and properties.
For those of us still blessed with a home, and the anticipation of a family gathering, Christmas always brings a busy time. It can bring so much to the table with our thoughts going in a million different directions and our hearts heavy for the losses of so many.
Yet in all that comes and goes, Christmas is still the same season of Hope and the same season of Joy, we just might have to search a little deeper into the heart and soul of us to remember to find a resurgence of the Hope that it brings.
So, today, with so much going on in our minds, we need to regroup and reset for this coming beautiful Advent season! Let’s reset for the season that rejoices in the birth of a divine, heavenly baby born into an earth world for a huge purpose! To deliver Hope to a world that unravels before our very eyes.
Advent? No matter what’s happening around us, it’s all about Him ~ The Christ Child, the Star of the season! His royalty, His divinity, His part man, part God side, who left the portals of Heaven to become flesh! Born to walk among us, feel the dusty earth beneath His feet, the hurt of rejection, the pain of sin, and the sting of death.
Take a time out to ponder His life as He lived it out in real-time, in real life, and for us. You and I and we and us. Yeah, forget the heaps of stuff on your plate and ponder Him, the Christ One. The divine baby, born in the stable to become the Christ Child, to become a man so human, yet so divine to walk among us! To become our Saviour and the Savior of the World. Oh, how beautiful He is to us not just at this season but all year, through the year!
Yet, perhaps our Advent season brings Him closer as our minds ponder Him more. So, let’s reset our thinking patterns, our mindsets, and our goals, and our purpose to focus on the Reason for our celebrations. Today just embrace His grace! Rest in Him! Rejoice in His mercy! Rejoice in His power to save one horrendous world that we find ourselves living in. Today! Rejoice in His unconditional love for the hurting and the fleeing! the lost and the ruined. The loved and the unlovely and the ones so desperately in need of Him and His tender touch!
Yeah, beautiful soul ~ Sit back and search your heart with “Time out” to reflect on His goodness at the beginning of a beautiful Advent season and remember where He brought you from and the golden threads He’s woven around you to bring you where you sit today.
So go ahead, get out your traditions packed in boxes and your fine, ornaments to grace the home with merry thoughts of Christmas and family and friends! Go for it! I love this time of year. Don’t you? Dig out the recipes for sweet treats and cookie exchange and bake up a storm because a fine celebration is about to begin! A celebration so rich and sweet with festivities that go so much deeper than decor and sweets and tinsel and lights and gifts! A celebration that goes beyond us and reaches to the King of Heaven who resides and lives in the life He’s given us ~ and still keeps giving and giving and giving!
Yeah, so before you begin the scurrying, “Reset” ~ grab a cup of tea, light a candle ~ you, yourself and you and reflect on the amazing season about, to begin with, the divine, Baby born in the manger ~ Our Saviour of the world!
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 