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Hear the devotional here: https://anchor.fm/eradio-valverde/episodes/Gods-In-Charge-e1ruebe
1 Hallelujah! O my soul, praise God! 2 All my life long I'll praise God, singing songs to my God as long as I live. 3 Don't put your life in the hands of experts who know nothing of life, of salvation life. 4 Mere humans don't have what it takes; when they die, their projects die with them. 5 Instead, get help from the God of Jacob, put your hope in God and know real blessing! 6 God made sky and soil, sea and all the fish in it. He always does what he says - 7 he defends the wronged, he feeds the hungry. God frees prisoners - 8 he gives sight to the blind, he lifts up the fallen. 9 protects strangers, takes the side of orphans and widows, but makes short work of the wicked. 10 God's in charge - always. Zion's God is God for good! Hallelujah! (Psalm 146 The Message)
In my life there are things that used to mean Christmas. By that I mean until I saw or had in my hand these things, it wasn't yet Christmas. I know that may sound silly but I was a child. One of them was the Christmas bag we would receive immediately after the Christmas pageant. I say pageant, but it was a play of boys in bathrobes (Yes, most kids had those - I don't know why?) and cigar boxes wrapped in aluminum foil, toy crowns, later Burger King crowns, and granddad's walking cane wrapped in brown paper as the shepherds' staffs. The narrator would read the Christmas story from Luke and Matthew, and we would act out the drama of that holy night. Once our moms had taken our bathrobes off of us and warned us to not run in the grass in our church shoes, we would form the line where we would get a brown lunch sack filled with one orange, one apple, ancient Christmas candy with the real curly sleigh candy, and a small handful of nuts, which usually included one huge nut that not even Dad's hammer could break open. The bags were magical and were Christmas for me. The second was to see our Christmas tree set up in our home; later it shifted to a particular tree in a particular place, think Houston's Galleria and its huge tree on the ice skating rink. The third varied from year to year, but it was finally being home after church around the tree and opening gifts on Christmas Eve. I don't want to start WWIII in when it's best to open gifts; you do your thing.
Advent is a special attitude of gratitude and praise for all God has done, as the psalmist outlines in the first verses of this psalm. It acknowledges that our lives are in the hands of God, not human experts. It is only God Who can provide the guidance and direction that we need for whatever it is that we are undertaking. After all, he summarizes, it is God Who made the earth and sky, the sea and all that is within it. God is faithful to His word; He defends the victims, God feeds the hungry; God sets free those imprisoned; God gives sight to the blind; God lifts up the fallen; in God the strangers have protection; the orphans and widows find in God the partner they lack; and the wicked will find their work ended in God, because God is in charge, always. Our God is our God forever.
Advent is a time of commitment; we vow to do all we need to do to set the stage for the celebration that is Christmas, as well as do all the preparations that will get our world ready for the return of Jesus. The only special items needed to know it's truly Advent is a ready heart, filled with love that we can easily share with others, and a spirit of joy. And the time is now when we can express that towards God and towards each other.
PRAYER: Come, Lord Jesus, into our hearts and lives and make us ready for our service to You and Yours. Remove from us that which is not worthy of You, dear God. Bless others in a loving way;; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Find the joy of the Lord in all things that bless you.
Receive my blessings of joy and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
