ADVENT MEDITATIONS - Part 9

DEC. 18 - (Доверие)
Today's meditation focused on the reality that as followers of Christ, we will experience the same difficulties that He faced in His earthly ministry. Fulfilling the mission of sharing the gospel with people in our broken world is not an easy task, but the result is not up to us -- and that gives us hope.

I chose these verses today - Psalm 18:29-31 (17:30-32 in the Russian Bible) -- For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall. As for God, His way is perfect; the Word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him. For who is God, except the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God?

Our hope comes from knowing that God is in control and His way is perfect. If we trust in Him - in His mercy and grace - then we can persevere through any difficulty AND He will use us to accomplish the missionary work that He has given to each one of us. But we must trust only in Him.

DEC. 19 - (Освобождение)
Today's devotional thought centered on the fact that Jesus Christ came to set us free -- but not necessarily in the way we sometimes think about it. The freedom that He provides to us is described in the following verses that I chose to memorize:

Hebrews 2:14-15 -- Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil - and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

For those of us who believe in Jesus Christ, who have accepted His salvation, death no longer has power over us. We do not have to fear death because of the victory that Christ won for us through His death on the cross! And if we understand this truth, we don't have to fear anything else either!