God Wants Us to Hold Unswervingly to Hope -Advent 23 (2019)

Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. (Hebrews 10:22-23) 

When all else around us fails, when people fail us, when our family fails us, and when we fail ourselves, this is the hope we can hold onto:  God is faithful.  Period.

Think About It:

• To know without a doubt that God is faithful is greatly reassuring.  We don’t need to turn to the right or to the left in search of something or someone who will be faithful.  What is our assurance based upon?  Read Hebrews 10:5-25 for context of this important assurance.
• What does unswervingly mean?  Why does God encourage us to hold unswervingly to hope?

In Scripture and therefore on God’s Christmas List, we hold onto hope.

Dear Lord, when I am prone to doubt, when I am lonely and questioning everything, when I do not know where to turn, please dear God, remind me of this assurance:  You are faithful.  Help me to look with eyes of faith not through the lens of my circumstances which are temporary.  Help me to know the eternal weight of glory that outweighs my afflictions.  I thank You and praise You for Your faithfulness.  Amen.

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Join me beginning December 1, 2019 by signing up on the sidebar of my Home Page to receive these daily devotionals. Let’s enjoy exploring what might be on God’s Christmas list.

Acknowledging inquiries about an entire season’s devotionals for your study group’s planning purposes, Seminary Gal’s prior seasons’ Advent devotionals can be accessed via the archives to the right and are as follows:  

• Last year’s Advent Devotional Series (2018) Storyteller began December 2, 2018 and entered into the Christmas story through its telling.
• The 2017 series Still Christmas, began December 3, 2017 and was the Advent complement to the Lenten series, Be Still and Know that I AM God.
• The 2016 season devotionals were called “Timeless: The Message of Christmas for All Ages” and explored how the message of Christmas is timeless truth, for all ages of people, and for all ages at all times.  Timeless hope, encouragement, grace, peace, and love as we looked into the Word, saw the face of our Lord Jesus, and experienced restoration in His presence.  His goodness and His Gospel are truly Timeless. The 2016 devotionals began November 27, 2016.
• The 2015 season devotionals were titled Incarnation and involved digging deep–and yes, I mean deep– in this important mystery of Christian theology.  They began November 29, 2015.
• Carol Me, Christmas! remains one of my most popular offerings and tells the Christmas story through our most beloved Christmas hymns and carols.  You can access all of the numbered devotionals from 2014 via the archives.  They began November 30, 2014.
• The 2013 series was Emmanuel: When LOVE Showed Up in Person and examined the Prologue to the Gospel of John.  It began December 1, 2013.
• The 2012 series focused on Expecting the Unexpected…the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan outlined in Luke’s account of the Christmas story.  It began December 1, 2012.