The Ninth Day of Advent

Monday, December 9, 2019

The Wonder of What God Has Done Through His Son:

An Advent Devotional Guide

For thou art my hope; O Lord, God, thou art my confidence from my youth.
Psalm 71:5

I’ve watched children who came to real and abiding faith in Jesus early in their lives. As they grow up, they seem to face even the most difficult things with considerably less stress than do most adults. One such young man came to faith as a teen, too young to drive a car. I knew him as a boy, now I know him as a man over 50. He’s known a lot of pain, including the death of his wife at a very young age from a debilitating disease. His faith is strong, and it was he on whom I leaned heavily when Wallace died two and a half years ago.

My young friend has really taught me the meaning of this verse, as I have seen him sustained and confident in “the God of his youth.” I don’t want you to think he did not weep. He did. Or to think he didn’t ache. He did. To think he didn’t almost give up. He did. Or that his faith did not seem shaky at times. It did. He has shared some of those desperate moments with me. But God never deserted him, and he never deserted God. When I felt some of those things he felt, it was he who encouraged. I thanked God, then and now for the telephone which allowed him to talk and listen to me, imparting great wisdom out of the hope that had sustained him, the hope of his youth.

Many of us do not have the memories of youthful faith. We know ourselves well enough to recognize our many limitations, our failure to be all that we know we can or should be. But we can take great hope in the promise that God has promised to always be there with us helping us to “will and do his good pleasure.”

Father, Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and his righteousness. Keep us mindful of this, please. Amen

The Wonder of What God Has Done Through His Son:

An Advent Devotional Guide
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Winter 2009
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator