Advent 2015 - Day 9

"Perhaps you are kept waiting in order that your desires may be more fervent. God knows that delay will quicken and increase desire, and that if He keeps you waiting, you will see your need more clearly and will seek more earnestly. He also knows that you will prize the mercy all the more for its long delay." (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

Prior posts:

Day 8 | Day 7 | Day 6 | Day 5 | Day 4 | Day 3 | Day 2 | Day 1

Advent 2015 - Day 8

"Look up, you whose gaze is fixed on this earth, who are spellbound by the little events and changes on the face of the earth. Look up to these words, you who have turned away from heaven disappointed. Look up, you whose eyes are heavy with tears and who are heavy and who are crying over the fact that the earth has gracelessly torn us away. Look up, you who, burdened with guilt, cannot lift your eyes. Look up, your redemption is drawing near." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Advent 2015 - Day 7

"The golden name, Immanuel, is inexpressibly delightful. It is a word fit for the lips of cherubim for its majesty, but, because of its marvelous condescension, none but men can utter it. He is not so with seraphs as He is with us. Immanuel, “God with us” (Matt. 1: 23)—in our nature, in our sorrow, in our lifework, in our punishment, in our grave, and now with us, or rather, we with Him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph, and Second Advent splendor." (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

Advent 2015 - Day 6

"Emmanuel. God with us. The name that sums up what Christmas means for the believer. It’s not that God simply chose to become a man so that He could feel what it’s like to be in our shoes. Or that we needed a friend in God, and He wanted to be more accessible. God made Himself a servant. The infinite God enclosed Himself in a woman’s womb for nine months. God Himself was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a feeding trough for a bed. God made Himself vulnerable. Picture Jesus, the firstborn above all creation, the one through whom God spoke the creation of the world, sitting on His mother Mary’s lap, learning to read and write! Such mysteries can never be fully explained. But it’s the story of God coming to man – God’s being with us – that lies at the heart of the Christian worldview. O come, O come! God, be with us!" (Trevin Wax)

Advent 2015 - Day 5

Jesus, throughout Advent, I want to give you more worship than whining, and more gratitude than grumbling. Just knowing you, or rather, being known and loved by you, makes us incalculably rich. For “I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Who do I have in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:23-26) So very Amen I pray, in your near and joy-igniting name. (Scotty Smith)

Advent 2015 - Day 4

"The Advent season is a season of waiting, but our whole life is an Advent season, that is, a season of waiting for the last Advent, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Advent 2015 - Day 3

Meditate on the fact that we need a Savior. Christmas is an indictment before it becomes a delight. It will not have its intended effect until we feel desperately the need for a Savior. Use Advent as a time of reflection to help awaken in you a bittersweet sense of your need for the Savior.