Joy comes from Holy Spirit, abiding in God's presence, and from hope in His word.

There is joy found in the waiting. His timing is good and perfect and we can trust the story He’s writing through us.

Our joy does not hinge on the ups and downs of day-to-day life. Some days are wonderful and some are unimaginably terrible. Rather, our joy is rooted in an expansive vision of reality, one in which God is not distant from us.

Jesus and His proclamation of the kingdom told us what we could prefer to life itself and it would work. The Scriptures end by telling us we are called to be people who would say, “Come, Lord Jesus”—who would welcome something more than business as usual and live in God’s big picture.

Imagine what the church could do if we were not deterred by fear and anxiety and we truly understood what steadfast love meant.

Today we’re going to step into the practice of Lectio Divina, which simply means divine reading. So, we’ll read the passage, 1 John 3:16-18, four times, and each time I will invite you into a space of silence and reflection through a simple question or directive.

How does this kid in the Old Testament, under the inferior covenant, show his love to a king without condition and without an agenda? I honestly do not know, but I am challenged by this kind of unique and unconditional love.

You can bring that weariness this Advent season because the King creator is into trading beauty for ashes, shame for significance, and pain for peace.

God is with you. God is for you. Live today in the wonders of His love.

My prayer for us in this season is that we would learn to partner with Hope Himself. May the word hope have a whole new meaning to us. A new expression. A new experience. Hope has a name. Hope is with us.