The Gift of Advent

Are the holidays difficult for you? We often feel pressured to buy gifts, attend parties, and pretend to be cheerful even when we're stressed.

God understands.

He wants to meet us in the busyness and give us what we really need. Imagine the stress and anxiety that Mary felt as her pregnancy developed, and her fiancé considered quietly ending the relationship (see Matthew 1:18-19)!

The Advent season starts four Sundays before Christmas. The word "Advent" comes from the Latin "adventus," meaning "coming" or "arrival." Instead of getting caught up in consumerism and busyness, God invites us to participate in his story.

By marking time according to the coming of Jesus, we create space to receive God's gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love. These practices prepare our hearts not only to celebrate Jesus' birth, but also to faithfully wait for his return. As we consider both his first and second coming this Advent, we will see that Jesus is God's ultimate gift.

The Gifts of Advent

For centuries, Christians have focused on four biblical themes during Advent. These four gifts prepare our hearts to celebrate the arrival of Jesus.

Hope – As we remember that God has already fulfilled his promise to send the Messiah, Jesus, we develop confidence that Jesus will soon return, and restore all things.

Peace – When Jesus dwelt among us, he included us in God's family and activated us for God's mission to bring wholeness, or peace, to the earth. Our experience of God's transformative love puts us at peace.

Joy – As we remember the first coming and await the second coming of Christ, we experience God's nearness—and our hearts are filled with exuberant joy.

Love – The coming of Jesus reveals the extravagance of God's love. As we experience God's love, our hearts are transformed to love God and others.

Opening the Gifts of Advent

How do we receive the gift of Jesus—and the Advent gifts of hope, peace, joy, and love?

The Gift of Advent will not only deepen your understanding of these gifts, but show you how to experience and practice them.

Just as a child believes that a beautifully wrapped gift contains something wonderful, we trust that God's word contains these gifts for our hearts. The essential attitude is faith.

The following devotionals invite you to be emotionally open with God.

Faith doesn't mean naïve sentimentality or the suppression of negative emotions. Rather, God's gift is like light in the darkness. We experience the full value of each gift when we share our whole hearts with God.

It's a busy season, but God's gifts come into our hearts on his timetable.

Patiently meditating on Scripture, reviewing it throughout the day, discussing it with friends, and most of all—putting it into practice—are how these gifts transform us to be like Jesus.

The greatest gift we can give others is a life filled with the hope, peace, joy, and love that only comes from living our lives with Jesus.

As we receive God's gifts by faith, our lives and communities point people to Emmanuel, God with us.

Come, Lord Jesus!