Advent – December 4, 2015
First Advent – Psalm 22:9–11 (ESV) 9 Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts. 10 On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God. 11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.
Second Advent – 2 Peter 3:10–13 (ESV) 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! 13 But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Psalm 22 is a prophetic psalm that Jesus quoted while on the cross. That was the end of his first coming. It was a life lived in humbled dependence on the Father. As he hung on the cross, he felt the distance our sin creates. One day he will return. When he comes it will be the ultimate shock and awe. As we wait, we ought to wait in holiness and godliness.
Prayer – O Lord Jesus, I praise your name. I know you are the one who humbled yourself and felt the pain and rejection that my sin produced. I thank you for wearing my pain, my shame and my death. As I wait for your glorious coming, as the King of kings and Lord of lords, keep me humbled and obedient. Help my life reflect your life. Guide me in a life that lives in anticipation of your new heave and new earth. Amen and Amen.