Readings: Isaiah 2:1-5 and Matthew 24:36-44
Reflections:
Advent is the season when Jesus’ followers remember his first coming, and practice watchful prayer and soulful readiness in anticipation of his second coming at the end of the age. Advent readings can aid our attentiveness to ways God comes to us now in comfort and care, provision and help, safe-keeping and sustenance while we wait for Christ to come again. Jesus’ invitation to keep watch means to be awake, to be fully conscious or present to God in our daily lives. During Advent, we become mindful of: Christ among us, Christ within us, Christ’s coming to us again…and again!
Reflection Questions:
- Can you identify places in your life that need God’s help: places of struggle, failure, disappointment? Awaken to these places of discomfort or challenge. Acknowledge your difficulty to God.
- Christians for centuries have responded to Christ’s promise of his second coming with a prayer: O Lord Come! or Come, Lord Jesus! (Rev.22:20). Use these words as you talk to God honestly about the challenges in your life. Ask for the Holy Spirit’s refreshment to renew hope for God to come to you, even now.
- Advent calls our attention to the tensions of waiting as we watch for Christ’s second coming. Waiting often makes us feel unproductive, helpless or leaves us to endure long periods of time without resolution or fulfillment. How might you embrace the invitation to wait on God for provision, answers, help and the return of Jesus without resolving the discomfort of waiting?
- Consider taking on a daily practice during Advent to train the soul to: awaken to God, to be present to God. In the evening or morning, look over your day (or the day prior). Ask yourself:
- Where was I awake (or present to) God’s activities in my life, in the lives of those around me today?
- Are there areas where I might become more aware of God’s presence with me?
- Where would I like to see God and his kingdom come, now, to me, to those in my life?
– Elizabeth Khorey and Michelle Sudduth