First Sunday of Advent

"The LORD said to Abram, 'Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'" Genesis 12:1-3

Beginning with Faith

Long before Jesus was born, a man named Abram, his wife Sarai and all their household left home to move to a new land because God made a promise to create a great nation from the family of Abram. In making an agreement with him, God changed Abram's name to Abraham (meaning "the father is exalted'). Now Abraham is called "our father in faith" because he believed God's promise and did what God told him.

We Christians are part of the great nation of faith that Abraham began. We have God's promise that, through Jesus, we will share a life forever in heaven with him. Like Abraham, we take that promise seriously and act on it.

We know the Advent story ends with the birth of Jesus, but Abraham had faith without knowing how everything was going to turn out. We need that same kind of faith: trusting God when we are not sure how our lives are going to turn out.

Lord Jesus, you ask us to have faith in You - in good times, in bad times, and those times we don't know how everything is going to turn out. As we look forward to the coming of Your Kingdom, help us to be like Abraham, always trusting in Your Word. Amen.