Advent Day 19 - We Can Know God

This year's Advent devotionals are from A Celebration of Advent:
A 25-Day Devotional by New Spring Church of Anderson, SC
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“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” 

John 1:1-3

Imagine someone new moves into your neighborhood. From a distance, you might immediately notice the car they drive, what hours they work, and whether or not they have children. You would know some things about them, but you wouldn’t know them. To know them, you’d have to be introduced. You’d have to speak to them.

We can know some things about God just by observing the world. We know that God is incredibly powerful and that He is not made of anything created. We can know that He is the Creator and that He holds all things together. We can know about God in this way, but we wouldn't really know God unless we met Him.

Jesus, the Word of God, made it possible for us to truly know God. John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” (MSG). The invisible God has become knowable (Colossians 1:15). We can meet God and interact with Him. God has moved toward us so that we might meet Him, know Him, and develop a friendship with Him.

Reflect: Read John 1:1-14

How did you meet God?
How does Jesus help us know God?
What does your friendship with Jesus look like?

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Prayer:

Father,

           Thank You for making The Way for us to come into Your presence and get to know You on a deeply personal level. Thank You for loving us - more than we can comprehend - to make The Way to deliver and redeem us from our sins so that nothing can separate us from You. Father, give us clean hands and pure hearts so we may stay in Your holy place. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Whaddaya Know?

Then the Lord himself said, “Gideon, you will be strong, because I am giving you the power to rescue Israel from the Midianites.”
Gideon replied, “But how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest one in Manasseh, and everyone else in my family is more important than I am.”
“Gideon,” the Lord answered, “you can rescue Israel because I am going to help you!" 
Judges 6:14-16a CEV

We pray. God answers. Then we tell Him all of our excuses why His way won't work, based on what we know of ourselves. Why do we do that?!? We must not recognize the Creator for who He is! Perhaps we don't remember who hung the moon? (And the sun. And the stars. And the planets.) 

Lyric excerpts from I Know My Redeemer Lives may serve to remind us:

Who taught the sun where to stand in the morning?
And who told the ocean you can only come this far?
And who showed the moon where to hide 'til evening?
Whose words alone can catch a falling star?

The very same God that spins things in orbit
Runs to the weary, the worn and the weak.
And the same gentle hands that hold me when I'm broken
They conquered death to bring me victory...

It's THAT God! HE is the One who says, "Because I am going to help you!" Oh, that we would know God in His greatness better than we know ourselves in our weaknesses!

Prayer:

Father, 
         Please forgive us for all the times we fail to recognize You for who You are and for all the times we have minimized You and limited Your will and purpose for our lives. Once again, we repent and submit our lives to You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen 

Friends' Favorites - Comfort in Knowing

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2nd Corinthians 1:3-4 NKJV

The Message bible offers our promise for today in this wording, All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.

The tears were real. The angst and fear were evident in the choked-out words of the telling. There wasn't one physical thing anyone could do to change the circumstances, but God...

The power of love with great compassion and understanding poured out from those who had faced the same battles and WON through Christ, our Lord! Declarations, testimonies and affirmations of only some of the times God had come through in the same situations were witness to His tangible triumphs! It is a beautiful thing to witness fears dispelled by faith rising in response to the high tide of praise.

...that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble... He brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.

There's comfort in knowing what God has done. It builds our faith and trust to know a never-failing God. Never miss an opportunity to tell of His greatness toward you. There's comfort in knowing...

Prayer:

Father,
           Open our eyes to see Your handprint on all that is good in our lives. Give us time and space to walk back through the pathway and remember all that You have brought us through, building up the holy faith that You have provided. Give us a holy boldness to proclaim praise at every opportunity for all that You've done in our lives so we may bring comfort to those who need to know. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen