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Advent 2 - Wednesday
By Pat Lee | December 10, 2008
Wednesday- December 10, 2008
Look For the Lord
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40: 1: 11
Scripture Verse: “…in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord” Isaiah 40:3
Sometimes we are down in the dumps because we run into circumstances that are insurmountable. The ancient Jews in captivity not only felt helpless, they were helpless under the power of the mighty Babylonian empire. It seemed impossible that they would ever be restored to their land.
But “prepare the way of the Lord” says Isaiah, reminding us that we are not the only ones working. God is working too. The fact that we are helpless does not mean that God is helpless. We will never be more helpless than we are at the moment of our death, when God’s power to give life again will be most evident.
And in case we think these are empty words, we should know that, while the prophet was comforting God’s people with words, God was already raising up Cyrus, the Persian (Isaiah 45:1-7) who, as history records, overthrew the Babylonians. What’s more, in the first year of his reign, Cyrus permitted the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and begin to rebuild the city and restore the temple.
Many of us have had the experience of looking back after a crisis has passed and seeing how God was at work all the time, preparing for our relief, even though we couldn’t see it when all seemed so hopeless. The poet Robert Browning wrote, “Before man’s first and after man’s last, God operated and will operate.”
God is the God of the unexpected. One example would be the first Christmas—another the Cross. But we can also look back over our own lives and see how God was with us in our problems. When we are down in the dumps “prepare the way for the Lord.”
Prayer: Loving God help us to learn again that, in Jesus, you are always with us even when things seem hopeless. Amen
Topics: Advent |
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