PBPC Advent Devotional, Week 1 - Monday
Hope means we know something good and wonderful is coming but it is not here yet. Long before Jesus came, the Hebrew prophets told the people he was coming. They had to wait and wait. But God was faithful and kept his promise.
Monday
Jeremiah 33:14-16
14 'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah.
15 'In those days and at that time
I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line;
he will do what is just and right in the land.
16 In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it will be called:
The Lord Our Righteous Savior.' (NIV)
The prophet Jeremiah lived and worked about 600 years before Jesus was born. During his life, he saw the Babylonians capture Jerusalem and take its leadership into exile, destroying the nation. Yet, in those darkest times, he spoke these words of hope and promise for a savior who would come. At the time of Jesus, the people were still holding onto that hope, trusting God and longing and waiting for its fulfillment.
Do you have a longing for which you have prayed for months, even years? Write it down. How is your hope and trust in God?
Daily Practice
Pray for that desire today. Ask God to renew your hope for the answer. Thank him for his answer, even now.