God Wants Your Willing Service-Advent 1 (2019)

Perhaps since I announced this year’s theme “God’s Christmas List” you’ve been thinking it’s mighty presumptuous to imagine God’s Christmas “Wish” List, especially since He doesn’t need anything.

There are plenty of Scriptures that lay out clear as a Christmas bell what God wants.
From you. From me. From us.

He wants willing shepherds and followers.

Scripture tells us “Zechariah was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.”

(This is an answer to prayer and all Zechariah the priest needs to do is be happy about it, go home to Elizabeth, share the good news, and hubba-hubba-hubba, do his part to make it happen. The angel explains a bit more.)

“He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their God“ (Luke 1:8-17).

Think about it:

Whether you’re a priest like Zechariah, a wife like Elizabeth, a blogging nobody like me, or you have another circle of influence, God wants your willingness. What is your circle in which God calls you to be willing?
In 1 Peter 5:2 it says that God wants us to be willing, to be role models in our community of onlookers, and to be motivated by desire to serve, not by money. Who looks at you as a role model? How’s that working? What are they seeing? Are you punching the clock and plodding through the day? Maybe hitting the ground running and stressing everyone out 8-5? Or are you a role model for those who are your co-workers, displaying Christlikeness to those observing?

What God wants for Christmas is…your willing, faithful service and your commitment to bloom where you’re planted

Dear Lord, please help me to willingly serve You no matter where that place might be. Uncover my eyes so that I might see where You are at work and unbind my prejudices so I might eagerly join You. Thank You for giving us the ability to serve and the skills and talents You’ve given us for the good of the Church and for Your glory. Now and forevermore. 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.