Advent Week 1–HOPE
By Holly Steiner, senior pastor, Tree of Life Church
Psalm 30:5 ESV
For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
Isaiah 61:1-3 NIV
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
Jeremiah 31:13b NIV
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.
Romans 5:3-5 NIV
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
In Full Surrender, There Is Hope
By Holly Steiner
When I look at all the advent “words”–hope, joy, love, peace–I have a hard time differentiating between them, because the older I get and the more I understand God and His word, I realize that they are all intertwined and similar. You can’t have one without the other. My word of the year for 2023 was joy and I’ve had a very immature understanding of Joy. I really just wanted to laugh a lot in 2023. Well, that didn’t happen. Sigh. I will still always desire more laughter, but true joy is so very similar to peace and love and hope. And this year, my hope has been strengthened.
Recently, Rosie commented on someone’s facebook post, who was grieving the loss of a loved one, something along the lines of asking the Lord for comfort and joy. It stuck with me and I cannot stop thinking about it. Around that time it was the anniversary of my brother’s death and another unrelated grief hit me hard that day. Ironic. Can I really ask for joy when I’m grieving?
I used to be very afraid of death and loss. Death of loved ones or loss of career were my biggies. I had much anxiety over it. Through experiencing the death of my brother, a career goal loss, and grieving the loss of some of my dreams for my children, I have learned that joy really does come in the morning, and the oil of joy covers my mourning. Beauty does come from ashes and He really does give me a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. This is my hope for the future! I no longer have to fear death. In full surrender, there is hope. I say this because there is another way that leads to a bad kind of death–not living a life surrendered to God.
I was given a book by my dad, a biography of his Vietnam buddy, Ed, of his time there. It includes some of my dad’s stories as well. In honor of Veteran’s Day, I started reading it. This story stood out. Ed was a flight engineer on a Chinook, like my father. One day, Ed’s Chinook was shot down. They were able to safely land in the middle of a rice paddy. However, they were surrounded by the enemy. Hundreds of enemy troops all around, shooting at them. He says,
“I had put my faith and trust in the largest and best military in the world, but now the best on Earth was not available. I was preparing for the worst. It became clear that nothing we could do ourselves was going to stop the enemy. The last hope I had was to put everything in the hands of my God (surrender). I began to appeal to God and call on the Holy Spirit. While I was returning fire, I repeated the 23rdPsalm. There, in the midst of a firefight, surrounded by screams of pain from the wounded, I did not panic. I had been taught to believe in our Creator and the power of prayer, but I had never put it to test with full faith and trust. My final prayer was only to go with God regardless of whatever happened (huge surrender). In the scriptures, Jesus says, ‘I will send the comforter.’ There, in that time and place, I felt a peace as I had never felt before, and I was comforted.”
A short time after this, they got word that help was on the way and they were being rescued.
This is my prayer for myself and for you:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. —Romans 15:13
God rest ye merry gentlemen let nothing you dismay (The Lord says rest and don’t worry) Remember Christ our savior was born on Christmas day To save us all from satan’s power when we were gone astray. O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy. O tidings of comfort and joy!
This is a message of HOPE; do not fear; Christ is our Savior!
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