Third Week of Advent ~ Monday

​Today's chapter is a prophecy over the life of Jesus written some 700 years before He was born. Reading it opens our eyes to see how incredible He was expected to be and how He fulfilled every prophecy abundantly.

Although it's hundreds of years old, it’s also a message for right now and still for a time in coming. It reminds us yet again that even if we encounter despair, mourning and ruins, we know better than to trust in what we do see. We have this immense gift of looking above what we see to the faithfulness of who He is and the promise He holds and to know that all of this will wash away. That His faithfulness stands far above our lives and we can walk in the celebration of knowing He has overcomelong before it might look like He has.

- Read Isaiah 61

The NIV is nice and simple for this chapter.

- Devotional Thought

​The thing about our God is that He is not removed from our current day sufferings, He knows the things we face, but He’s not about to let us subject ourselves to that any longer.

We read in this chapter that grieving, mourning and desparation is spoken about in the present tense. It's a message for those in the midst of their struggle. It's written with the expectation that we don't have to think we have to be removed from our struggle to find the glory of God, but that He comes right into where we are.

It is out of our darkness that the goodness comes.

Out of the ashes the beauty comes.

And out of the mourning comes the oil of joy.

None of it is wasted.

- Passage to focus on 

​“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭61‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV

When I read these verses, I just see the hope. The hope that out of whatever we are facing, God is coming in His goodness!

- Image for today 

Today's image is of a flower and it's roots. It's to remind us that there is sometimes a dark, breaking and seemingly dead area to all of our flourishing. But that's how a flower grows. Unless the seed dies and plants roots, it will never flourish beautifully.

- Prayer 

Lord God,

Thank you for promises like these that were written far before we could comprehend that you are for us. Thank you for age old prophecies that cement the goodness of how you came to fulfill our desperation and the truth that out of our brokeness, you are working beauty.

- Active idea

Think about where in your life God is growing your roots. How might He be preparing you for what is next in your life. Give thanks for His faithfulness to never let us go even when we are in the growing season!

Thank you for joining me today! Hope to see you again soon!

Have a blessed Lent

~ X ~