Hope

The first week of Advent is coming to a close and we get closer to celebrating the birth of Christ. Every year I pick up a devotional at church. I LOVE the Advent readings and am amazed that each year I get something so new out of them.

This week, it was the words in a prayer that left my thinking about the coming of Christ and how so many people have the reason for this season completely wrong.

Here is the prayer (taken from The Magnificant 2009)

"Even in the darkness that lies between despair and hope, we dare to pray:

O God our Savior, you are the hope of all the earth.

O God, when hope flickers and faints, rekindle within us the fire of your Spirit: that we may burn with desire for your promised salvation.

O God, when despair overtakes the human spirit, fan in us the one desire to pray: that we may find in your fidelity the source of all true hope.

O God, when the darkness threatens those who have forgotten your goodness in the past, stir once again the memory of grace: that, remembering, we may dare to hope once more."

And the scripture reading that went with that prayers was Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! plans to give you a future full of hope."