Advent, Day Two

Advent, Day Two
The French author Simone Weil writes in her notebook: "Waiting patiently in expectation is the foundation of the spiritual life." Without patience our expectation degenerates into wishful thinking. Patience comes from the word :patior" which means "to suffer." ... What seems a hindrance becomes a way; what seems an obstacle becomes a door; what seems a misfit becomes a cornerstone.


Henri J.M. Nouwen
Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life, pg 55

Scripture:
⁹ Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are convinced of better things in your case—the things that have to do with salvation. ¹⁰ God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. ¹¹ We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. ¹² We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.    
Hebrews 6:9-12

====

First Presbyterian Church Advent - 2020

Prayer

 

A Prayer for Your Neighborhood

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for placing me here. I know You’ve planted me in this neighborhood for a reason. Thank You for the people that live here, people I know You love and care about. Men, women, and children created in Your image.

I pray blessings over the families in my neighborhood. I pray for marriages to be strengthened. For patience between parents and their children. Please help them to understand each other’s perspectives, to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

I also pray for the relationships between neighbors. May we all learn and appreciate each other’s differences and find common ground with each other.

Help us, Jesus, to listen to each other really well. I pray there would be a spirit of hospitality where people invite one another into their homes.

Lord, I pray that I would be that kind of neighbor too. As a follower of Jesus, help me to take the first step.

Help me to love my neighbors well and to be the one who points them to how great and awesome You are. Lord, most of all I pray that my neighbors would come to know You in a personal way. That they would come to understand and know and be undone by your grace and mercy. Amen!

"Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God."  Romans 15:7

Scripture

 The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.
Jeremiah 33:14-16