It is certainly different for me these days to be reading Job and Revelation during the Advent season. Poor Job – he is getting all kinds of advice and long lectures from his friends. Some of them call their words so special that they believe they are coming right from God. That sounds so familiar to me from certain days gone by. I am still afraid I might run into it again, but I trust that God has made me wiser and more mature to respond a little bit more like Job.
And you have been offered
comforting words from God.
Isn’t this enough?I have often heard this,
and it offers no comfort.
But I would offer hope
and comfort instead.Job 15:11; 16:2,5 CEV
I think the Advent season is such a time for me to be comforted. Every year brings it toils and snares and this year of 2018 is not different. Yet God has words of comfort this Advent season. Words of hope, peace, joy and very soon love. They make a difference to me. And I realize that they are more than just comfort for a trying year. They are also a bugle call as I pray into the new year coming. Those same messages of comfort become my call to action to live a life with exclamation marks of hope, with a heart centred in peace, for the joy of the Lord to be my strength and to see every bit of life through the lens of God’s love. Life as a follower of Jesus is not necessarily going to get easier, but I walk into each new year with an amazing promise.
God’s people must learn to endure. They must also obey his commands and have faith in Jesus.Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Put this in writing. From now on, the Lord will bless everyone who has faith in him when they die.” The Spirit answered, “Yes, they will rest from their hard work, and they will be rewarded for what they have done.” – Revelation 14:12-13 CEV
It is my prayer for my family that this promise with be part of our celebration and comfort this Christmas season but also our challenge and comfort in the new year.
Father, thank you for Christmas, for Your words of incredible comfort. Job would have loved to hear them as much as I and my family do today. I give You my family, walk with them, may they joy in walking with You. Should this be the year that they meet You face to face, I pray they will enter into Your promise and I look forward to the day that I will too. Help me walk in faith, obey Your call in my life and I will look forward to receiving Your promise if that day should come. Thank You.
Erwin (evanlaar1922)
Sixty-six books in a year 