Advent is a time we can refresh our amazement in the prophecy and arrival of Jesus the Messiah, growing closer to Him as we proclaim our longing for His coming again. We pray this devotional will challenge and remind you of the hope, joy, preparation, and love that we experience as we anticipate Christ’s birth.
The Choice
The Advent season has a way of resetting us. We find ourselves reminiscing and remembering the mighty moments of our year, considering and contemplating what we want to do differently moving forward.
Read Genesis 29
Why did Jacob want Rachel? Why did God open Leah’s womb? What were the four statements Leah said as she bore her four children? How does Leah describe her life in these statements? What is different about the fourth statement?
Read Matthew 1:2
This is the genealogy of Jesus. Whose name do you see in this lineage that you saw at the end of Genesis 29? Who did God choose to write the lineage of Jesus through? The wanted or the despised? Rachel or Leah?
Make a list of the traits you see in the kind of people God chose. Why did He choose them? Look back to what you wrote at the start of your time with God today. How are the qualities that you listed different or similar from what God says makes someone a good candidate for His purposes?
In the significant moments you are facing, God is with you, not primarily in your strengths but also in your weaknesses. He has written these huge and epic moments into your life not because you are qualified, but because He is qualified and He is with you .
Read 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
How is God encouraging you to face your significant moments through this text?
God is in the business of writing His story with unlikely heroes.
Read Isaiah 53:1-3
This is the gift of Immanuel, a God with us who was misunderstood, rejected, and unwanted, all to confirm in our hearts the truth. We cannot trust the world, or even ourselves, to tell what makes a person valuable to the kingdom of God. We must trust God.
This Jumpstart Advent series was written and produced by Park Community Church in Chicago, IL.
JumpstartCPC.com 