December 23, 2019

Advent 2019 - Love

Devotion for the Week...

Well, here we are, at the start of the last week of Advent 😊 Are you ready for Christmas? At this point, we have a bunch of things left to wrap, some food prep to do for Christmas dinner and I'm almost finished the boys' ornaments. My in-laws will be arriving today, so the cleaning needs to be finished soon, too, lol.

So far this Advent season we've looked at the hope, peace and joy of Jesus. Today we look at His love.

Shortly before His death, Jesus said, "There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends" (John 15:13). Usually when we think of that verse, we think about His crucifixion and He did lay down His life for us then, but the whole process actually started decades earlier, when He first entered our world as a baby.

Think about it this way. Before He became a human, Jesus was not limited by our human constraints. He was omnipresent, able to be anywhere and everywhere all at once. He was outside of time, not held to the here and now like we are. He didn't have a physical body, so He didn't suffer from hunger, fatigue or pain. Then "he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being" (Philippians 2:7). Could anyone ever have laid down more than Jesus did when He left heaven to enter Mary's womb?

Why would anyone ever give up so much? For love, of course! "For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Jesus came because He loved us so much that we were worth the sacrifice of not only the cross, but also of his 'divine privileges'. He traded heaven for the manger because of amazing His love for us.
Jesus traded heaven for the manger because of amazing His love for us | DevotedQuilter.com

Thank you for spending another Advent season with me! I hope you have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends 😊

3 comments:

  1. This was a lovely devotional. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for all of us. I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas & may God Bless.

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  2. Thank you for providing opportunities to reflect on the coming of our Lord Jesus as the pre-Christmas preparations become a distraction from Him.
    May your family Christmas be full of loving kindness and the richness of His blessings. Allison

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  3. Another very meaningful devotional! It reminds me somewhat of the song "How Many Kings" by the group "Downhere".

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