Advent Devotion Introduction

The liturgical year provides a rhythm to our lives. The different seasons help us to focus or refocus so we might be able to be fully present to each moment, sensing where God is at work in our lives, the world, and what God might be calling us to do. The season of Advent is an invitation to live into the beautifully uncomfortable tensions as wait for the Lord. We sit in the tension of what has already happened; God breaking through into our world in the humblest of ways, a human baby and we live into the present where we proclaim and trust that God is with us here and now, even as we anticipate, hope, and wait for Jesus to come again.

The refrain “wait for the Lord” continued to crop up as I prepared for this season’s devotion. It particularly jumped out at me as I read Psalm 27:14:

“Wait for the Lord; Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord!”

I found in the footnotes of my Harper Collins Study Bible scholar Patrick Miller explains that the to“Wait for the Lord means to expect the Lord’s deliverance.” We are a people of hope, we wait on the Lord expecting, trusting, daring to believe and daring to hope that God has acted, does act, will act, and will continue to act. For God is a God of action; a God of deliverance.

As we journey through this season of Advent together, may we go as a people of bold hope; hope in a loving, faithful, and gracious God who has acted, who is acting, and who will continue to act. For Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will surely come again. For now, let us wait on the Lord.

I hope you will join me, along with members of Second Presbyterian Church in Charleston, SC as we journey through this season of Advent together. Each Sunday in Advent has a theme and will have a corresponding devotion which will be sent to members of Second Presbyterian Church and published here. Throughout the week, I plan, as an Advent spiritual practice to expand on each of these Advent themes and will publish those posts here.