The opening lines of the traditional Christmas carol “God rest ye merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay!” somehow seem a little glib. There’s plenty that does dismay us about the world and our own experiences. Yet if we push on past these opening lines, the carol continues in its multiple verses to record the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, faithfully presenting the details from the gospels according to Matthew and Luke. Most striking of all is the refrain: “O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy! O tidings of comfort and joy!” The message of Advent, as we consider both the first coming of the Lord Jesus at Bethlehem and His second coming at the end, is all about the comfort that the Lord is able to provide and the joy which flows from all that He has done.
This series of daily devotions for the Advent season are drawn from both Old Testament and New Testament, from Isaiah and Luke. They interact with promises of comfort and point to the joy available in and through the Lord Jesus. These devotions are deliberately short and concise, interacting with a few verses each day but hopefully they are long enough to be the means of enabling each of us, wherever we are, to encounter the living Lord Jesus. My hope is that we would find security and rest in the comfort He alone provides in a world full of pressures and problems. My hope is also that we would rediscover the joy of knowing Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
You may wish to use this prayer which I use before each sermon,
“Lord, may your word be our/my guide,
May your Spirit be our/my Teacher,
And may your Glory be our/my supreme concern,
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Angus MacLeay: Autumn 2023
