Advent Devotional: Hope Begets Hope

In the Christian tradition, Advent marks a unique milestone in our calendar when we celebrate the arrival of Jesus Christ. Historical artifacts point us to a long genealogy of names that not only list out the family tree of Jesus — but lead to a bold proclamation that confirms that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah (Matthew 1, Isaiah 7:14).

Imagine this: after a few centuries of many generations waiting in complete silence, hundreds of Biblical prophecies have suddenly been fulfilled in his arrival. This moment in history is a foundational crux of why we believe as Christians. Because God came down to us in the form of Christ; because He inserted Himself into humanity’s story… we have been given the gift of Hope as a person and a promise. The promise of new life (both on earth and after death) is now ours in Christ’s arrival. We need only to say yes to the gift.

I hate to be the cheesy person who admits to having a “word of the year” but hey, does it make it less cheesy to note that I didn’t start off the year with a word, but I am ending the year realizing there was one word woven throughout 2023 — and that is hope. But instead of it being a year of hope, it was actually seasons of hope deferred and absent. You know that feeling where you’re waiting on God for so long that eventually you wonder, “should I still even pray about this?” That was me with two very personal circumstances in my life. One being a continued wait of several years that I’m sort of used to; the other being a new reality for my family that hit me like a train and has led to its own present wait. To be honest I think because of that first ongoing silent wait, it affected how I perhaps view God’s involvement in the other parts of my life and led to a fracture of hope without me realizing.

I’ll never forget this summer day with my best friend on a beach in Sicily where she lovingly spoke hard truth to me that she had seen me grow callous and withdrawn in my hope in Jesus. As we unpacked this, I began to see how almost in a self-preservation sort of defense mechanism, I was ceasing to pray with the same faith and hope that I used to approach God. Why? Honestly I think I just didn’t want a reason to be upset or angry at God if things didn’t turn out how I wanted. I was paralyzed with this continued feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop or more bad news lingering close by.

I needed my hope to be resuscitated.

This didn’t mean: blindly believing that all my prayers will magically be answered in the way that I want. Not at all. I’ve never wanted to be the kind of Christian that we might see portrayed in the media as someone with the rose-colored-glasses who thinks that our faith = an easy life and every prayer gets answered; treating God as this cosmic vending machine…

“Those who live for experiences will find themselves relating to God as a cosmic vending machine, banging on the glass when the spiritual item they want is stuck beyond their reach.” - Rich Villodas

This meant: how can I anticipate with confidence that I’d still see God’s goodness in the land of the living? (Psalm 27:13)

*I needed the Person of Hope to empower me to experience the Promise of Hope.*

“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)

I’ve meditated on these words from Paul for the last 4 months at least weekly. What do I mean by meditated? I’ve read it over and over, memorized it, studied the context, prayed it, and sifted it over in my mind more than I can say. God’s Word given to us in the Bible is one of the biggest gifts and resources we have to grow in our faith. And I truly believe that we are invited to engage with it interactively and relationally. To examine it like one would the sides of a sublime gemstone. To ask questions about it.

Since my mind thinks sort of formulaically [for better or for worse], I created this very advanced visual ;) to help me better understand what this means for us. It gave me a few aha moments.

This is the Promise:

The God of Hope — arrived to us in Jesus Christ — is the one who promises to fill us with His permanent joy and peace. Not a peace or joy that the world gives; they don’t understand it.

The kicker for me was realizing where my role to play comes in. This filling happens in partnership with God. He fills us AS we are trusting in Him and believing in His power. Better said, as we are putting our surrendered faith in Him.

And friends the best part of this promise is that as this beautiful cycle continues, God’s power through the Holy Spirit works in us to cause us to overflow with hope.

Our hope can’t run dry because the source of it is the person of Jesus. Our hope is powered by the Holy Spirit who lives in us as our chief reminding officer:

“But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative — that is, the Holy Spirit — he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.” (John 14:26)

I left a coffee with a mentor of mine a few months ago and as we were walking out, he left me with this phrase: “Dare to hope.” It was in regards to something specific I had shared with him that I was dreaming about. He had no idea that the very word hope was the concept I was wrestling with all year long. And as I continue to sit with that, I realize that hoping is indeed daring. It takes courage, a little trepidation, excitement, eagerness, and giddiness. But we can take God up on the “dare” and choose to hope because as Paul writes, as we trust in His faithfulness, proven in the arrival of Jesus Christ to us, we are empowered to overflow with HOPE.

May you dare to hope again in His faithfulness above your circumstances this Advent season.

“Yet I still dare to hope
when I remember this:

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!” (Lamentations 3:21–24)