Advent Devotional 2022

CONSIDER THIS

Feeding the roots of Jesus’ family story are prophecies, this one delivered to and by the prophet Isaiah, who lived roughly seven hundred years before the birth of Christ. This Advent prophecy, beginning with the words, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,” is brought out into the light every year as the Christian New Year begins.

While the world searches adamantly for gifted leaders to guide us, with their promises of a prosperous nation and a kinder
society, Jesus was given as a gift to us from a source beyond us—our Creator. The one who made us knows the exact kind of
leader we need.

Jesus was given to us, from the Father, for humanity and our condition, to lead each one of us from spiritual imprisonment to
the freedom of the new creation life. Jesus leads us from simply living to a life of awakening.

Jesus was given to us, from the Father, to model for us a mode of kingdom leadership that puts the Father’s ends and goals
first—a remarkable form of leadership that springs from an unwavering, transcendent perspective on what is best for us all.
Learned through intimacy with the Father, Jesus speaks what the Father speaks and does what the Father does in full view of us all (John 5:19; 12:49).

Jesus was given to us, from the Father, to establish a kingdom that would inhabit the human heart rather than a geopolitical location, an establishing of an inward reign by which a person is truly and utterly changed, and through which a renewed humanity would lead others to wholeness, to belovedness, and to the true shalom (peace) of God. Nations are collections of individuals, and Jesus pursued the individual knowing that changing the heart of one leads to changing the hearts of the many. The eternal government, the providential politics of Jesus, will always transcend the human structures so exposed and humbled by time.

Jesus was given to us, from the Father, in the form of a child. Innocence, growth, maturity, and dependence are integral to his
story, as they are integral to our own. In other words, he came like us, in every respect, that he might lead us into the fullness of being a child of God (Heb. 2:17).

Jesus was given to us, from the Father, named by names that characterize his divine-human life unveiled before us (John 1:9–13). He is called Wonderful. Amazing. Breathtaking. Beyond understanding. He is called Counselor. Guide. Educator. Encourager. He is called Mighty God. Strong. Immovable. Unchanging. He is called the Everlasting Father. Son of the Most High. One being with the Father (John 10:30; the Nicene Creed). He is called the Prince of Peace. Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operations Officer, and Chief Creative Officer of Shalom—the all-pervasive peace of God. Leadership is what the world needs from a Messiah—leadership that is motivated by pure, divine love and that is faithfully guiding us to the new creation ahead.

Be assured of this: Jesus will rule and reign over the kingdoms of this world, and they will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ (Rev. 11:15). The Lord’s passion, the Lord’s energetic purpose, will make it so. Let it be, Lord; let it be.

THE PRAYER

Jesus, you come to us in a time when the ways and politics of humankind have failed us as much as they have served us. You choose the human heart to reign within, and we yield ours once again in this passage through Advent. Let our allegiance to you and your lordship rule over all other loyalties in my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• In the past years, have you had any allegiances or loyalties that you felt ruled over your inward commitment to Christ from time to time? What were they, and how can you get back on track?

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt

But the Lord said to Samuel,“. . . The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” . . .

Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”

So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David.  Ruth 1:16–17

CONSIDER THIS

“Once in royal David’s city,” goes the familiar Christmas carol. It reminds us of the ancient promise that through a royal family line, from the lineage of the great Hebrew King, David, the Messiah would be born. Our Advent verse returns to us: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse [David’s father]; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit” (Isa. 11:1). David, the son of Jesse, will be a key star in the constellation of spiritual royalty that leads to the birth of the bright Morning Star (Rev. 22:16), Jesus—the King of the human heart.

David. In 1 Samuel 16, Samuel the prophet is told by the Lord to seek out the new king chosen to lead his people, a king God would choose from among the sons of Jesse of Bethlehem. Samuel finds Jesse and evaluates each of his sons, searching for kingly qualities and a royal bearing in each young man. But the Lord God will have none of it: “Do not consider his appearance or his height,” the Lord says. God knows exactly what he’s looking for. While Samuel looks on the outward appearance, God is looking on the heart (1 Sam. 16:7).

David is framed in history as a man after God’s own heart (1 Sam. 13:14; Acts 13:22). Why is he framed that way? He is anything but morally perfect and behaviorally sound. Power can corrupt, and David’s lusts led him into adultery and the murder of an innocent man. Once again, Jesus’ family tree, royal as it is, is full of the kinds of real people whose stories should make us all grateful that the Lord of abundant grace accepts and works with us just as we are.

What attributes did David show that made him so noteworthy as a man whose heart was after God’s own? David was a worshipper at heart. His focus on intimate praise and the acclaim of his Father in heaven fills the book of Psalms, which in turn has filled the hearts of worshippers for millennia. David knew he was loved. David also knew how to repent when he had sinned, even in his most hard-hearted moments. He understood that without the favor and presence of God he was nothing. David was humble in this respect, and though he did a few glaringly wrong things in his lifetime, he could receive correction. David was a man who sought to obey God over the trajectory of his lifetime, and this kept him tethered to the heart of God toward him, and the will of God being done through him.

The Lord is never after perfection; our journey will always be uneven at best. He is after the heart. And like David, he uses the small, foolish things of this world, those people that break the “how a leader should look” rules and lead from a heart devoted to God, to confound the wise in this world’s eyes (1 Cor. 1:27). When Jesus comes on the scene, he comes as an infant—with the heart of a King. Who would have thought that an infant would make great kings tremble; that a child would shake the very foundations of hell? When the hands are moved by a heart after God, there is no end to what God can accomplish through us.

From the root of David’s heart will come a branch, and that branch will be known as Jesus, the Messiah, the King of the human heart.

THE PRAYER

King of the human heart, we stand in awe of your great love, a love that is changing us from the inside out, taking us from glory to glory as each day passes. Your wisdom is guiding us, your love is transforming us, and your patience is pacing us along this journey of faith. This Advent, we say, once again, that there is no one in heaven or on earth that we desire more than you (Ps. 73:25). Give us a heart like David, like Jesus—that pursues your glory above all else. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• Have you ever looked at the outward appearance of others, comparing yourself to them and falling short of your own inward expectations of yourself?
• If God looks on the heart, instead of on the outward appearance, what is he seeing in your heart right now?

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”  Ruth 1:16–17

CONSIDER THIS

A major theme in Advent is that Christ comes to us as Emmanuel, which means “God with us.” As we move through Jesus’ faith family history, drawing on stories of people who walked with God in exemplary ways, and connecting them to the life of Christ, we come to Ruth. Ruth is a model of what it means for Jesus to stay with us through all we experience.

A few years ago I had major reconstructive surgery on my foot. It would be months before I could walk normally again, and the physiotherapy was grueling. One day, alone in pain and feeling as if the ordeal would never end, I received a text from a dear brother in Christ. He asked if now would be a good time for him to come over. I told him I wouldn’t be much company, but sure.

There in my living room, my foot propped up and my mind foggy from medication, we sat. We talked about anything and everything under the sun. There were long lulls in the conversation. If I wasn’t so distracted by the pain it would have felt awkward. The lulls didn’t seem to matter to him. I kept wondering when he would think it was time for him to leave. But he seemed to have nowhere else to be.

After a while, I realized what was happening. He had just come to be there, to sit with me in my struggle. He had come to stay a while, sit a spell, take a load off—with me. He had come to listen, to make me laugh, and to be a friend to me in my season of hard healing. Maybe you have a friend who has done the same for you.

Maybe you have been that friend.

The friendship and family kinship between Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi, is one for the history books. Ruth, a Moabite, was devoted to her Israelite mother-in-law after the death of their male family members. In Ruth 1:16–17, she says the words that forever endear her to the Jewish people: “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.” Ruth stayed.

She eventually marries Boaz, her kinsman-redeemer (that’s worth a study sometime), and becomes a part of the family line of the Incarnate Son of God, Jesus. A woman who stays is part of the family line of the Lord who stays—the Lord who stays with us through it all.

Stay. In John 15:4–5, Jesus says these words to his disciples: “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. . . . If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.” The Greek word for “remain,” also translated “abide,” is the word meno—put simply, it means to stay. In other words, stay a while. Sit a spell. Don’t go anywhere. Remain—without needing to leave. He calls us to stay in him, and tells us that he will stay in, with, us. Emmanuel, God with us. There it is for our Advent reclaiming—Jesus is the Staying Lord.

Advent reminds us that the covenant loyalty and love God showed in history is the same covenant loyalty he shows us now in Christ. The gap between our Creator and us has been bridged by the presence of Jesus. He’s not going anywhere. Neither should we.

Jesus, no matter what you are going through, is your Staying Lord. He is the present, remaining, Emmanuel, God-with-us King—and he is in no rush to leave your side. He is with you in sweet conversation, today, by his Spirit working within you. No matter where you are, in a hopeless valley of the heart, or on a mountaintop of highest praise, Jesus stays with you. He’s here, with you—all the way.

THE PRAYER

Staying Lord, we desire to remain in you, and to have you remain in us. Our hearts are prone to wander, Jesus, as the old hymn says, but this Advent we choose to reorient ourselves to your unshakeable, unrelenting, loving presence in our lives. We take comfort in your nearness to us as we walk together through the days and weeks ahead in this Christian New Year. We’re not letting go; we will stay with you just as you stay with us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• Have you ever felt the Lord staying with you, hanging in there with you, when others couldn’t give you what you needed in time or attention? As you remember, bless him, praise him, thank him, for never leaving you or forsaking you (Heb. 13:5).

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt

Now the men had said to her [Rahab], “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother, your brothers and all your family into your house. . . .”

“Agreed,” she replied. “Let it be as you say.”

So she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.  Joshua 2:17–18, 21

CONSIDER THIS

As we turn again to the genealogy of Jesus in our study of his faith and family roots this Advent, a fascinating woman is named in Matthew 1 as part of his lineage—Rahab. Her faith that God had favored the people of Israel, a faith expressed in her hiding of the Hebrew spies who were assessing the land and Jericho’s weaknesses, became the hallmark of how we remember her.

Rahab is an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ, and what makes her so unique is that it seems that her occupation was that of a prostitute. Matthew wants to make sure we see her mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy in the first chapter of his gospel. What is going on here? When you look in the mirror, do you always see your best self? “Good morning,” you say. “You are one shining example of a human being! What a joy it is to be you today, to actually be you. God loves you, adores you, in fact—and it’s more obvious why every single day. You are the one of the best of us, friend. Now let’s brush those teeth and get out there so the world can be a better place!”

If you say something like that each morning, good on you! A wise mentor once told me, “Humility is not too high a view of yourself or too low a view of yourself—it’s an accurate view of yourself.” If you’re anything like me, however, you typically see not only the beautiful work that God has done in your life, you also see the blemishes, the mistakes, the regrets, and the struggles that even followers of Jesus still attempt to carry around in our memory long after he has set us free. You and I see our whole story staring back at us in the mirror—and we often have little grace for ourselves as we do.

Jesus, however, sees your story, knows your story, just as he knew the story of every sinner he was accused of treating as a friend (Matt. 9:10–12). When Jesus sees you and me, he never sees us according to our past, failings, or broken story only—he calls us by our name, sees us as we are to him, and he calls us beloved. We are never as far from God as we may feel like we are. A door of hope is always open with his Advent invitation welcoming us in: “Come, exchange your worst for my best.”

Rahab must have had hard days considering her own past. As a prostitute, the narratives about her, uttered in the streets of the city, were most probably demeaning, belittling, and derogatory. Imagine no one caring about your story, how you got to where you are, and offering no compassion for you in your situation. Then, something miraculous happens in her life, just as it happens in ours. Rahab is given an opportunity to show faith, to take God as he is and as he comes to her, and to believe. She takes that opportunity, just as every friend of Jesus has taken that opportunity over thousands of years. Rahab becomes a friend of God with one decision of trust.

The next morning, when she looked in the mirror, is it possible that instead of seeing the same broken woman she saw every other day, that the winds of faith blowing through her spirit enabled her to catch a glimpse of the beautiful daughter of God the Father saw her to be? Faith can have that effect on a person. It often does; faith calls us out of our old story and welcomes into a new one—as the Spirit opens us to who we were made to be.

In Matthew 1:5, Rahab is mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy, and in Hebrews 11:31 she is named in the “Hall of Faith”: “By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” In other words, Rahab believed.

Jesus, born under a Bethlehem sky all those years ago, was born to be a friend of sinners. Sinners were members of his own family, and their stories were not unfamiliar to him. As a salvation storyteller, Jesus knew how to turn a story around with a word, a touch, and a glimpse of pure love.

Jesus is a friend of sinners. You and I are called to be the same, knowing our own stories, and from where we have come by the grace and mercy of Christ. You and I are in good company with the Lord who receives us as we are, and shows us, along the way, who we are becoming by grace.

THE PRAYER

Jesus, friend of sinners, we thank you for all you have done and are doing in our lives. Continue to transform us day by day until we become like you in every way. Transform our desires to match your own. Transform our thoughts to match your own. And give us eyes to see those who are broken by sin, ministering your love to them with compassion, forgiveness, and empathy. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• In what ways, throughout your faith walk with Jesus, have you experienced him befriending you even when you were far from him?
• How could you extend that same friendship and acceptance to those not walking with God in your network of relationships?

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt