2021 Advent Devotions
Sunday, December 12 - Danielle Erdley
1 Thessalonians 3:12 “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.”
We are a people who were created to be in community with one another. We are hard-wired that way. We seek closeness with others – to be understood and seen deeply, to be able to share with another person your true self and have them do the same with you. We fill this need with our spouses, our family members, our friends, co-workers – on different levels, but each important. These relationships help us to grow, to understand ourselves and the world around us, and are one of the ways we experience Christ among us.
But we live in an imperfect world and we are imperfect people. Relationships are broken – through separation, through distance, through misunderstandings, through death, through isolation due to circumstances beyond our control, and in myriad other ways. When that happens – when that connection no longer exists or is, at the very least, strained – we long for it to be repaired. In some cases, that is possible, but in others, it isn’t. Either way, we long to feel made whole again.
This Advent, as we prepare our hearts, our homes and our lives for the coming of the Christ Child, we long for wholeness. What we must do is long first and foremost, and seek every day, for wholeness in our relationship with God. Through prayer, listening, and opening to God’s leading, we can be guided to how we might need to change, to seek forgiveness, to see a situation anew, so that we can better be in relationship with others, and share the fullness of God’s love through our words and actions.
Prayer: Gracious Father, we come before you as people longing to feel whole and connected. We ask your guidance and conviction in our lives and hearts, that we may more fully understand how you would have us tend to the relationships you have blessed us with. Amen.
1 Thessalonians 3:12 “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.”
We are a people who were created to be in community with one another. We are hard-wired that way. We seek closeness with others – to be understood and seen deeply, to be able to share with another person your true self and have them do the same with you. We fill this need with our spouses, our family members, our friends, co-workers – on different levels, but each important. These relationships help us to grow, to understand ourselves and the world around us, and are one of the ways we experience Christ among us.
But we live in an imperfect world and we are imperfect people. Relationships are broken – through separation, through distance, through misunderstandings, through death, through isolation due to circumstances beyond our control, and in myriad other ways. When that happens – when that connection no longer exists or is, at the very least, strained – we long for it to be repaired. In some cases, that is possible, but in others, it isn’t. Either way, we long to feel made whole again.
This Advent, as we prepare our hearts, our homes and our lives for the coming of the Christ Child, we long for wholeness. What we must do is long first and foremost, and seek every day, for wholeness in our relationship with God. Through prayer, listening, and opening to God’s leading, we can be guided to how we might need to change, to seek forgiveness, to see a situation anew, so that we can better be in relationship with others, and share the fullness of God’s love through our words and actions.
Prayer: Gracious Father, we come before you as people longing to feel whole and connected. We ask your guidance and conviction in our lives and hearts, that we may more fully understand how you would have us tend to the relationships you have blessed us with. Amen.
The Prophet Acts 3:22