Daily Readings for Week 2 (Dec. 7 - Dec. 13)

*These are all the scriptures referenced in the Advent Reading for Week 2.

Day 1

Read Micah 5:1-5a

Yet again, the people of God found themselves facing an army lined up against them, ready to

lay siege to their land and cut off their food and water supplies, to slowly starve them into

submission and defeat. God assured them he knew what was going on, and that he already

had their salvation worked out–but it was coming from an unexpected place. If they were

looking for strategy and resources for a military problem, God’s people would look to a

stronghold of wealth and soldiers. Not Bethlehem.

But, if they were looking for deliverance that came straight from God’s hand, his own way,

Bethlehem DID have a spiritual history. David–the man after God’s own heart–he came from

Bethlehem. God was giving broad hints, preparing the minds of his people. His salvation would

come from a place that was insignificant in the world’s view, but a place in line with how he had

worked before. He was sending a ruler who would remind them less of a general and more of a

shepherd, but with all the might and majesty to keep his people in perfect security. To keep

them in perfect peace. To allow his people to go about living life, growing, flourishing. His

power and dominion would spread across every aspect of this earthly life, so that every aspect

of our lives could be secure, governed by him.

If you have given your life to the Lord for safekeeping, thank him for the perfect security he

allows you to dwell in. Take a minute to let the reality of that security sink in. Then ask the Lord

how he would have you use that security today to let go of needless fears and to instead use

that energy and attention to flourish in the abundant life he provides.

Day 2

Read Isaiah 30:20-21

Through the prophet Isaiah, the Lord reminds his people that, although they are living in

affliction and adversity in the present, they will be able to see him soon–that he will make

himself clear to them. He promises that he is guiding them, helping them know how to walk, no

matter what circumstances they find themselves in. Sometimes the Lord leads his people by

unusual means, towards destinations or outcomes that he chooses not to explain yet. Just like

Mary and Joseph most likely didn’t know that the most important reason they had to get to

Bethlehem was so Jesus could be born in the right place, but God got them to the place he

wanted them to be.

Read Romans 8:28

The Lord did not exaggerate or generalize when he said, “For those who love God, all things

work together for the good.” In the midst of our current, sometimes difficult reality, the only way

to make sense of that is to understand that he sees so much that we do not, and that his

perspective is far, far better than ours. Like Mary and Joseph, we can feel like we’re being

pushed around by ungodly forces beyond our control. But, like Mary and Joseph, we can take

the next necessary step in faith and trust God to orchestrate our lives so that they glorify him.

Ask God to help you hear his voice, sense his nudging today, even in the mundane, everyday

parts of your life. Ask him to help you trust that even the hardships in your life can be used by

him to accomplish his purposes. Ask him for the faith to trust that he’s working, even when you

can’t yet see much of what he’s doing.

Day 3

Read Matthew 2:1-6

When wise men came from far-away countries asking to honor Israel’s newborn king, Israel was

puzzled. What were they talking about? Where was a newborn who was heir to the throne?

The wise men said the stars realigned to announce this king’s birth. They expected he would be

spectacularly important. Israel’s current earthly ruler, Herod (who called himself a king), had no

idea what they were talking about. But those who studied the scriptures knew–if there was a

king born so important that the stars honored his birth, that would be the promised ruler, the

Messiah God had been promising to send. And God did say where to look for that to happen,

because he didn’t want us to miss it, and who in the world would have looked in Bethlehem for

that kind of a thing? So God told the prophet Micah, and Micah wrote it down. Those devoted

to the Scripture read it and remembered. And when the time was right, and God sent his

promised leader to permanently rescue Israel, the fact that he was born in Bethlehem confirmed

who he was. God knows exactly what his people need in order to understand his

communications to us. And if we need bits of information planted years ahead of time, so that

we’re ready to receive God’s word when it comes, then God plants information years ahead of

time–decades, centuries. Nothing is outside his grasp.

Can you think of a time when you were seeking the Lord’s will, or an answer from him, and you

realized he had set something in motion a long time ago for this very purpose? Can you trust

that he might be doing that even now, with circumstances, conversations, messages? Ask him

to bring to mind things he has told and shown you in the past that can help you see how he is

working today, in the present. Ask him to help you rest in his perfect ability to communicate

himself clearly to you.

Day 4

Read Luke 2:1-5

Most of us know that the Christmas story kicks off with a Roman decree for a new census that

would allow for new taxes. What a power play on the part of an empire that had no concern for

the people it conquered! What an inconvenience–a hardship–to travel to your ancestor’s home,

just for the purpose of getting your name on the list to pay more money to a government that

would definitely not be spending it on you. What a threatening reality, to be so close to time for

your first baby to be born, and to be facing a difficult road trip that would likely end in an

anything-but-home birth.

We get to have perspective, though. Notice how, as Mary and Joseph complied with the

maddening, oppressive forces they couldn’t fight, God was orchestrating even this to

accomplish his plan, where he wanted it, when he wanted it. That’s extremely encouraging! To

know that, even in the areas of my life that feel so beyond my control, in the circumstances that

cause unfair hardship and even fear, God is working to use me to bring his kingdom here. Pray

for the strength and patience that God is ready to give as you walk through the frustrating, the

angering, the fear-inducing circumstances of your life right now. Ask the Lord to help you see

ways that he has worked in the unexpected before, and ask him to help you trust that he is

working even now, not just in spite of these situations, but by means of them.

Day 5

Read Luke 2:6-7

Unlikely. That’s the word that keeps coming to mind.

Unlikely that a young mother who lived in Nazareth would give birth in Bethlehem. Unlikely that

anyone with any control of the situation would choose a little unremarkable place like Bethlehem

as a doorway between heaven and earth. Unlikely that someone would actually choose a

manger in a stable for the resting place of God in a newborn body. But that’s how he made it

Happen.

God’s perspective must be so completely different from ours.

Ask God to re-orient the way you see things today–to make you less dependent on earthly ideas

about what is important and more aligned with His revelation of what is actually important. Ask

him for the humility to gladly participate in his moving and working, no matter how insignificant it

may seem in earthly eyes, no matter how unlikely a God-glorifying outcome may seem. Ask him

to prepare you, your heart, and the circumstances of your life to encounter him in new and

understandable ways, and to share him with those he puts in your path.