Advent 2020: Hope

In “Advent 2020: Hope,” Charity shares what she is learning about advent—a word meaning arrival. This week she shares about hope.

Thanksgiving is over and Christmas is quickly approaching.

Advent is a word that I have heard since I was little but am just discovering the beauty and importance of keeping it in my own life. This Christmas season, in particular, my mind feels distracted by a thousand different things—COVID-19, preceptorship, graduation, finding a job, K and I’s future and where God wants us, walking with family and friends through hard life circumstances, working through anxiety and control issues. It seems extra hard to focus on what is most important this Christmas. As I was praying and asking God what He wanted me to write about this week, advent kept coming to mind and how I desperately need to be reminded of the immense beauty behind the true meaning of Christmas.  

Advent means arrival. Obviously, we are celebrating the arrival of our Savior, but I think sometimes I overlook the fact that we are not just celebrating the birth of our Savior. We are celebrating everything that His birth entails. It is the arrival of our promised hope, peace, joy and love. Jesus is our All-in-All. His coming brought about each of these gifts in full measure. He was the One the Jews had waited for over 400 years! Jesus was the very embodiment of hope, peace, joy and love for them and is still to us today.

This week I have been digging into the biblical meaning of hope. Christian hope is about waiting with anticipation. It is different from secular hope. Christian hope is not optimism at its finest. It is not weighing the odds and making the best guess. Christian hope is a person.

Wow, that is a lot to put on one person. But thank God that Jesus can take it. In Him all God’s promises are “yes and amen.” Jesus is the only person who ever lived a life worthy and capable of being our hope. Jesus’ birth marks the fulfillment of God’s promise to His people. His birth signifies that God is faithful and loving. Jesus is our hope, not an election, a political party, a vaccine, a diet, a spouse, a friend, a relationship. The person Jesus Christ is our hope and in Him we find rest for our weary souls.

What about now? If Jesus was the fulfillment of God’s promise to His people why do we still have pain, sickness, death, and injustice in our world today. The answer is simple. We live in the now-and-not yet. There is still more to come. Jesus is still our hope. We have confidence in Him but also wait with anticipation for Him to arrive a second time.

We received not only precious salvation through Jesus who is our Life, but we received the precious Spirit of Jesus to lead and guide us in an intimately close relationship with God. This kind of relationship is one that Jesus as a human could not give us so He sent His Spirit to walk with us reminding us of the day when Jesus will return and remain with us. On that day He will wipe away every tear, right every wrong, and extinguish death forever.

But there is more, on that day God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—will dwell with His people. No more sin holding us back. We will worship as we were made. Until that day, we remember and anticipate the arrival of our Savior and the hope that He brings. Without Him we would not be saved, made clean, destined for a future with God. Without Him we would not have the Spirit living inside us, leading us into the presence of the Father. Without Him we would never have the hope of living with God unhindered from the curse of sin and death.

I know life is hard. I know this year did not go as expected. Disappointments and heartache are at every corner for many of us. Why is it that though my first instinct is to blame God? He did not do it. It’s not His fault. He did not cause Adam to sin in Eden. He did not create the pain I feel. 

Here is what I know from the hope we have in our Savior: God is for us. Everything He does is for His glory and our good. He does not enjoy watching us suffer. It breaks His heart. There are things in this life that He never intended for us to face. He never intended for us to die or suffer. It is never His will that we suffer yet in His goodness He redeems it and uses it to draw us closer to Himself.

Sometimes we suffer because of our own sin and the choices we make. Sometimes it is because of other’s choices that affect us. No matter the cause it was never God’s desire for us to experience pain. Sin is the reason for our pain, not God. And no matter the cause, God is there waiting to redeem the brokenness of this life. With God, we can be confident that goodness awaits on the other side of every suffering just like there was an empty tomb on the other side of the cross.

God makes beauty from ashes and uses our suffering for His glory if we surrender to Him. The reason we can endure through our suffering is because we know God’s character. He is LOVE and from Him pours rivers of life, justice, mercy, grace, compassion, righteous anger, kindness, joy, intimacy and community. We know these things because Jesus Christ, our LIVING hope, proclaimed them to us. That little baby we celebrate at Christmas grew to become our strong victorious, serpent crushing King. He is the fulfillment of all God’s promises to us.

Our hope in this life is Jesus.

As you prepare your heart this season remember your hope is firm and steadfast because it is not any created thing but is the One who created all things—Jesus Christ, the God-man.

Author:

Charity

Hello! I’m the C to KC & Co! My name is Charity, and I am so excited you are checking out our site and blog. My deepest desire is that God will use the words on this blog to encourage, strengthen and deepen your love for Jesus. Read more of my writing here.

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