Sue O’Donnell. 14.12.20
“He will swallow up death forever, and the LORD God will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 25 v 8)
Come, possess us, Lord Jesus!
Increase our capacity for trust,
According to the sending of Your Holy Spirit.
He was the Motivator of our faith,
Our belief in You as Saviour.
We offer warm thanks and praise for this.
But now is the time of Advent,
A season of preparation for Christmas.
Therefore we need a fresh outpouring
Of Your Holy Spirit teaching us.
Sharing with us holy wisdom,
And the truth we find in You, Lord Jesus.
“And it will be said in that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him and He will save us.
This is the LORD; we have waited for Him; and we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” (Isaiah 25 v 9)
Please come Holy Spirit, and increase our capacity
To turn to, yearn for Jesus as Lord,
As Saviour, as God’s living Word, our hope.
Increase please, the scope of our ability
To give first hand witness to meeting with Jesus.
Fill us by His holiness, a sure testimony.
Define again our heavenly destiny
Discovered in the Son born to Mary,
The Child born to be King over humanity.
Elucidate the role of love, of mercy, of forgiveness,
The reasons why our Brother chose to die
That we would be pardoned of our sinfulness, and saved.
“Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.” (Isaiah 16 v 2)
Renew the promise our Father makes to us
Of deliverance from sin’s shame, satan’s blame.
Please, please focus Christ Jesus in each of us,
In every heart and mind of a believer.
So the remainder of the world find a love increasing
Which is true, true to the Trinity, true to everybody.
There would be no Christmas without Christ,
And this is exactly how it feels in our world today.
Sadly the majority have moved far away from propriety,
From the virtue necessary to progress to holiness.
“You will keep him (her) in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You. Trust in the LORD, forever, for in YAH, the LORD is everlasting strength.” (Isaiah 26 v 4)
So many tend to live self-absorbed, self centredly.
But the Lord Jesus comes to set us free from this.
We will be welcoming a royal Baby,
Son of God and mysteriously, Son of Mary.
Therefore we have to make ready.
Come, Holy Spirit of purity, descend firmly upon us.
Please help us to dethrone ourselves,
To exalt Christ Jesus as He is, the Messiah,
The promised Saviour, the Prince of Peace,
Able to release us from our foolishness and gross stupidity.
“...authenticity...depends on a freedom and sincerity of soul which permits a person to grasp the value of all the signs contained in Jesus’ gestures and to accept all that ensues from them...”
(“Recognising Christ’s Amazing Works” Servant of God, Father Luigi Giussani)
The stupidity whereby we seek to live independently is wrong!
Let us instead, worship our Father in the Lord Jesus,
Crowning Him as King to bring light to a darkened world.
For Jesus will be our Saviour forever,
The doorway to heaven opened up for us,
Because His holy life will be sacrificed on a †
To gain us forgiveness and freedom from satan.
Yes, we must make ready to receive.
Come, Holy Spirit, inhabit our thoughts
That we be fully caught up in who Christ Jesus is.
“...we have been made to face the affirmation of an extraordinary historical reality: a man – God” (Father Giussani cont. in “MAGNIFICAT” 02.12.20)
Let us be thinking like Jesus, acting like Him, loving like He does,
Always with the high purpose of honouring our Father.
Strengthen us, Spirit Lord, in our holiness.
Make us totally focused on Jesus’ will and ways.
Teach us again to pray handing over the control of the day.
Not of course to satan, who will try to usurp us,
But to the One who lives to make love gracious.
Come, Holy Spirit, that we be made holy,
Living life through the Lord Jesus, making Him our worship,
Which we lovingly offer back to our Father of mercy.
“ ‘And this is the will of Him who sent Me that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him (her) up at the last day’.” (John 6 v 40)
Then we can be entirely happy, happy to be holy.
Come, for You are the Spirit of hope, of peace, of joy.
In Your employ we discover Jesus as Christ the King,
The One to bring us before the throne of mercy,
Then we will have experienced holy love in its entirety.
Love gifted us by our Father, in the Son, by You, the Holy Spirit.
What merit there is in us turning to our Saviour Brother.
As the Light of the world, He shines with love.
As Christ the King, He gifts us of His love.
As the King of glory, He will lead us home to the heavenly realm.
“ ‘Comfort, yes, comfort My people!’ says your God. ‘Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins’.” (Isaiah 40 v 1, 2)
But all of this is dependent upon You, Holy Spirit,
Being ever active in us, amongst us, in all holiness,
Moving our mind and heart, will and conscience.
To find how to live in reverence through Jesus Christ the King.
By love we are made, but this likeness to holy love,
We have maimed and disfigured by our disobedience.
We have however, a Saviour gifted again out of love,
Who in mercy, is born to be the Saviour of the world in its entirety.
We come then, again, renewed in hope this Advent season
With every sound reason for hope’s existence.
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets, on many occasions in a variety of ways. Now, however, He has spoken to us through His Son, whom He made the heir of everything that has been created.” (Hebrews 1 v 1, 2 The Truth)
“For through Jesus, God created the entire universe, and He is the One who shines with God’s own glory. When He became Man He expressed God’s nature perfectly.” (Hebrews 1 v 2, 3, The Truth)
Lord, You have spoken through Your prophets. You have made promises to us and these cannot fail because Your nature is love, showing us a steadfast loving kindness. And You have sent us Your Son as the testimony to Your word. Thank You.
As the Lord Jesus comes to us to testify to the truth of Your love, I do not see why so many people do not come to faith in the Lord Jesus. What is the matter with us? May the Advent preparation of believers help to
bring Your Spirit of fire down upon a cold hearted world.
Let the Spirit of fire brightly burn to ignite our enthusiasm for the truth. We are told that today even some news is fake. Help us, please, please help us to turn once again to Your love and mercy as shown us by the
Lord Jesus.
I ask for the Holy Spirit to motivate all peoples to seek and find the truth of our existence, the fact that we are a fallen people, beset by sin sadly, in dire need of the knowledge and experience of a Saviour.
Mercifully dearest Father, You have already provided this for us in Christ Jesus. Why, then do we turn our backs on Him? Why are we so defiant, difficult to persuade? Is it the arrogance of seeking self-sufficiency?
If so, how stupid, we could be blown out of existence quicker than a blink. Oh how precarious life actually is.
Well, that is until we have a personal friendship with the amazing, life changing love the Lord Jesus offers us by means of His and Your Spirit, Father God.
It is as Saint Augustine said, that our hearts are restless until we find the Lord Jesus as the answer to all problems and pain and the true, full and eternal meaning of life. Oh how great is our need of the illuminating
Spirit.
May the Holy Spirit safeguard and guide us. May He make us openly receptive to the truth of our brokenness, so easy to actually see in the everyday world. May we be convinced of our need of holy help, of
divine healing.
May the Holy Spirit revive our interest in the gospel message of our rescue from sin, through the birth, life, passion, death, resurrection and ascension of our Saviour Brother. It is so vitally important that we
understand all of this as best we can, heeding truth.
Let the Holy Spirit show us how to submit our time, efforts, plans, decisions, actions, in fact everything, to the Lord Jesus’ authority so as to see His Kingdom advancing in our day.
Surely the more the Spirit impacts upon us to involve us in an ever deepening friendship with the Lord Jesus,
the more we will become witnesses to the life changing, life enhancing, real power of holy love in our world.
We need the Holy Spirit!
Let the Holy Spirit please help us to pray in all sincerity of longing to belong to our Saviour, for without this the world is lost to hope. Jesus our forever Saviour, is the living hope of Your invaluable gift to us, thank
You, Father God.
“To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in You” (Psalm 27 v 1, 2) truly I do. Let mankind no longer condemn themselves. What on earth do the majority of people think Christmas is about? I am so sorry that in the main, we have reduced this most wondrous of times to a mere winter festival.
What an insult this must be to You, holy Trinity, I am so sorry. “Let no one who waits on You be ashamed” (v 3) for where the Lord Jesus comes by the Holy Spirit, there is hope.
May believers never lose hope in Your promise to rescue us. I think the main thing we need rescuing from is ourselves! Our lack of interest in faith, or resolve to discover the truth. Or if when we have accomplished this, we can be half hearted.
O Lord, Eternal Father, come to us anew through Your Son, by Your Spirit. “For You are the God of my salvation,” (v 5) of our salvation. And this is our waiting time of Advent, an expectant season.
“Remember O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your loving kindnesses, for they are of old. Do not remember our sins,” (based on v 6) but Your promises of a fresh start through the redeeming love of our Saviour Brother.
Because You are “Good and upright,” (v 8) in Your mercy, one of love for us, is why You are always teaching us the right way to live. Let us no longer turn a deaf ear to the Spirit’s calling. Let Him speak to our heart to
transform our life.
The Lord Jesus comes to bless us to become a blessing in our turn. Let not Advent be wasted. Let us prepare properly for Christmas, prepare spiritually making ready, really ready to receive the most honoured Guest ever.
May our Advent preparation result in a much greater, wholehearted involvement of us in our faith, in our living this out in everyday life.
We have a Brother who is our Saviour and life is radically changed when we respond to His Spirit, Your Spirit, Lord God. May we emerge from Advent better able to focus on what is really important in life, sharing
and spreading the true love You, as a Trinity, have for us.
Without this love there would be no Christmas! We must, must, must, do better at living a prayerful, honest, fully upright life, one closely connected to our Saviour Brother, by the Spirit. For then our world will see an increase in the holiness which gives rise to true happiness.
Surely, ultimately, this is what all life is about, finding the truth and living by it? That is Your truth dearest Father, the truth of Your love, Your mercy, Your forgiveness, all gifted us in Christ Jesus as we respond to the Holy Spirit.
May the world see an increase in our capacity to live within the truth, not only at Christmas, but by lives radically changed by the power of holy love. We are soon to welcome a life giving Saviour, all thanks ever be.
Amen.
Images by Artist Christine Garwood
http://www.christinegarwoodartist.co.uk/
Season
ADVENT
Key Themes
REDEMPTION
