Advent Devotions-Week 1: Hope
Well, the season has begun. This is one of my favorite times of year! I hope that your family will get the most out of this season by spending a little time in the Word each day in preparation for the Big Day! Gather your family around during a time when everyone is home. Light a candle if you have an Advent wreath. If you don’t, consider letting your kids make one out of construction paper. It will really make this time together more meaningful for your kids.
Monday – Psalm 42:5. Read this verse together (for older kids, go ahead and read the whole chapter). Ask your kids if they have ever felt discouraged and sad. The writers of this psalm had plenty to be discouraged about! They were exiled and their enemies were taunting them. Many people in our world today take medicine when they are sad but the bible gives us another remedy: meditate on the goodness of our God. This does two things for us. It takes our mind off of our troubles and puts it on God, and it gives us hope for better times ahead. Close your time together with a prayer.
Tuesday – Leviticus 26:40-45. Bad things happen in this life but a person who understands God and how He relates to His people can have hope even in the middle of suffering. After reading this passage, list the reasons God allows His people to suffer. To make us humble, to make us appreciate Him, to make us repentant, etc. Tell your kids that they can trust God to ALWAYS keep His promises. Close your time together with a prayer.
Wednesday – Romans 8:18-22. When we look at the world around us today, we may see a lot of hurting people. Disease, cruelty, abuse, poverty, natural disasters, etc. are all evidence of the broken world we live in. But Christians shouldn’t be hopeless because we have hope for a future of glorious freedom. Read this passage together and talk about what the world will look like when Jesus comes back. Close your time together with a prayer.
Thursday – 1 Thessalonians 1:7-10. We can tell by Paul’s words that the church in Thessalonica had a great reputation for having hope despite their circumstances. Read this passage together and ask your kids what the Thessalonians did that made them “an example to all the believers in Greece.” Think of ways that you and your family could conduct your lives in ways that make others talk about you in the same way. Close your time together with a prayer.
Friday – Philippians 3:13-14. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to hope is feeling bad for the things we’ve done and thinking we don’t deserve to have hope. Your kids may be too little to have done anything bad enough to be an obstacle to hope—but one day they will. Help them understand that no one really deserves the “heavenly prize” but Jesus made a way for us to look forward to it with hope. That’s what makes it grace and it’s why you’ve been spending this time preparing your hearts for Christmas.