December 5th 2024 – Advent Devotional
I don’t really like to think about the future. I tend to be an “in the moment” person. I think that for me, the future is unknown and scary. But if we’re thinking about hope you have to think about the future. Thinking about things that I hope for in my near future is easy; graduating, getting a good job, finding a place to call home. And on the other side of things thinking about the far future is easy; I hope that I get to go to heaven and live an eternal life with God.
For me, it’s the in between that I find hard. I hope that I surround myself with people that love me and better me. I hope that I have fun and do everything that I’ve ever wanted to. I hope that I make a positive impact on the world and the people around me. And I hope that I live my life for Christ in everything that I do. In Philippians 1:20-23, Paul talks about the way that he sees dying and how it affects the way he sees living. Paul tells the Philippians how he wants to be loud about his faith and that God would “be honored in my body whether by life or by death” because he knows that when he dies, he has the hope of eternal life with God and therefore, he isn’t scared. Paul makes a very compelling statement in verse 21, “to live is Christ and to die is gain.” If we hope for God to be honored in everything that we do, then we have to truly believe and live out this statement.
This Advent season, let us take some time to think about how the presence of Jesus on earth gives us hope to have courage to honor Christ through the way we live.
Kaylee Napier