Third Week of Advent 2022
We finished the third week of Advent with some more thought-provoking and meaningful words.
Below are the words from this last week, along with meditations, quotes, scriptures or prayers that reached my heart when I was researching each word. I also always include a photo that I’ve taken on trips or in my daily life. If you would like to receive these daily in your inbox, sign up here.
Sunday – MESSENGER
In Luke 2, the first thing the angel (a MESSENGER of God) said to the shepherds is, “Fear not”. Don’t fear the news. Don’t fear the change. Don’t fear the unknown. Don’t fear the future. Don’t fear at all. Fear not. That’s a message we often need to hear, especially these days. “Good tidings of great joy are coming right up!”
Monday – WILDERNESS
“To be commanded to love God at all costs, let alone in the WILDERNESS, is like being commanded to be well when we are sick, to sing for joy when we are dying of thirst, to run when our legs are broken. But this is the first and great commandment nonetheless. Even in the wilderness – especially in the wilderness – you shall love Him.”
-Frederick Buechner
Tuesday – STRANGER
“Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you?
Or thirsty and give you something to drink?
Or a STRANGER and show you hospitality?
Or naked and give you clothing?
When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?
And He replied, I’m telling the solemn truth:
Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored,
that was ME — you did it to Me.”
-Matthew 25:37-40
Wednesday – BELOVED
Today’s quote is an excerpt from something Dad wrote several years ago about his father, Papa Charlie. I’m so thankful to have these words from Dad:
“I recall it as if it were yesterday. Actually, it was almost 60 years ago. My father, at a relatively young age, was hospitalized following a major heart attack. He was in a rather precarious condition, and the mixture of physical, mental, and emotional strain was taking a toll, with spiritual ramifications. (This is not unusual following a lengthy hospital stay.) One morning when I arrived to visit him, he told me that during the night he had been under what he interpreted as a spiritual attack in which everything that he believed, including his own salvation, was called into question. In his weakened condition he prayed, “Father, I can’t fight this battle, but your Holy Spirit can. I trust in You to meet my needs and give me victory over the Enemy who is attacking me.” He went on to tell me that almost immediately it seemed that on the wall across from the foot his bed, with the eyes of his heart, he could read the words, “For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” As he considered those words in the middle of a troubled night, his heart was flooded with peace, and he fell asleep. It is a blessing to know that no matter what we are facing, no matter what the Enemy of our souls throws at us, when there is confusion, fear, and even doubt, our Loving Savior is with us, He is caring for us, we are his BELOVED and He has already won the battle in which we find ourselves. I am persuaded: HE IS ABLE! Hallelujah, What a Savior!
-Robert Griffin
Thursday – THIRSTY
“God’s response to the THIRSTY soul is grace. We would prefer time travel. Second chances. Do overs.
But God opts for sustaining grace. Grace that leverages the past for a better future. Grace that fills the gaps created by our sin or the sin of others. . . .
I don’t think it is intuitive to pray for grace and mercy in our time of need. We pray for the thing we need in our time of need. We pray for circumstances to change. We pray for memories to go away. We pray for people to treat us better. And so we should.
But none of that is promised. What’s promised is grace and mercy in our time of need.”
–Andy Stanley
Friday – TRAVELER
The City of David was situated on a hill just a few miles south of Jerusalem. Weary TRAVELERS, brought in by the census, were packed in every available room in town. Yet, in the quietness of night, while the streets lay in sleepy silence, the stillness was broken by the cry of a baby. Into the darkness, Light had dawned, and the course of history was forever changed in that little town of Bethlehem.
O little town of Bethlehem,
 how still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
 the silent stars go by;
yet in thy dark streets shineth
 the everlasting light.
The hopes and fears of all the years
are met in thee tonight.
Saturday – MAJESTY
“Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious MAJESTY to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”
-The Book of Common Prayer