Waiting Here for You, An Advent Journey of Hope

This seven-day devotional is derived from Louie Giglio’s 365-day devotional, Grace & Glory. As we spend the next few days diving deep into the topic of gratitude, we are expectant that this intentional heart posture toward thankfulness will lead us closer to Jesus and His love for us.

The faithful transmission of the Gospel message from one generation to the next is at the heart of the mission of God’s people. Paul, the foremost missionary of the Christian faith, spent his life investing in others in the hopes that the message he proclaimed would continue throughout the world long after his death. Two thousand years later, we are the fruition of Paul’s labor and the recipients of the same blessed burden: to take up the mission of spreading the good news of Jesus to the world around us.  Over the next twenty days, we’ll open the scriptures and study Paul’s second letter to Timothy, a young pastor in the city of Ephesus. Guided in our study by Ben Stuart, we’ll dive into writing dripping with emotion as the aging Paul begs his beloved Timothy to stay true to the faith in an age where the culture at large was rejecting Christianity.  Timothy’s hurdles to continuing the work of God were immense, and maybe you can relate, but Paul urged him, and by extension us, to be diligent in the face of obstacles in order to properly care for God’s people. Maybe you’re like Timothy, called to ministry in a difficult day, or maybe you are simply trying to shine with the light of Jesus in dark times. No matter where God has you today, there is so much to learn from this letter from a mentor to his beloved disciple.  Each day of our study will consist of a short video, and we encourage you to read along with us, take notes, and set aside the time to meditate on or even discuss what you learned with a friend or small group so you can deepen your faith. These days are going to be life-changing, so let’s get started.

Far too often, we approach our daily lives with the mindset that we must maximize every second or else we’ll miss out on a “successful” life. As our calendars fill and margins slim, the frenetic pace and pressure of life begin to generate a constant flow of anxiety, stress, and fear. If left unchecked, this unsustainable striving will leave us broken and empty, disconnected from the peace and pace God intended for our hearts. However, in His grace, God established the Sabbath to help us counter the chaos of striving. What is Sabbath? Simply a day, or a season, where we stop, rest, and remember who God is and what He’s done. It’s an opportunity for us to declare once again that our confidence and hope are in God alone, not in our own abilities or wisdom. It is not time off, to simply disconnect from the world, but it is time up. Time to look up; to fix our eyes on the source of our true strength; to reconnect with the One who made us and who loves us. When we participate in Sabbath, we commit to stopping. We make space in our busy schedules to slow down, pause, and surrender our striving efforts. This is how we begin to move from the non-stop, never-ending, rush of life to recenter ourselves on God. When we carve out time to stop, we let God’s peace set the pace of our souls. Then, from that place of stopping, we aim to rest in God. It’s this rest that helps our hearts resonate with God’s character. We begin to understand and believe that, as His children, we have already been accepted into His family. There is no level of striving or seeking that can diminish or elevate that reality. We’re not missing out when we’re resting in God; we’re refueling. We know God, and in that, we have all that we need. Lastly, we not only rest in God, but we also aim to remember. All throughout the Scripture, God encourages His people to remember His ways, goodness, and power. God has shown up in the past and He will show up in the future, so we can turn to Him and trust Him with our today. It’s our remembering that should propel us to live lives of faith and dependence on God.  These three themes will be woven throughout this Sabbath journey and these daily reflections. As we begin, stop and ask that God would help you uncover areas of restlessness as you seek to find rest in Him. Only He can satisfy your deepest longings, so let His peace set your pace and draw near to Him. He is eager and wanting to draw near to you. For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved;     in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15

This five-day track through the book of Ruth, taught by Grant Partrick, demonstrates what it means to trust God even in the face of adversity and embrace His redemption.  As we dive deep into this book, which is often highly regarded as the greatest short story of all time, we pray that you will be inspired by the faithfulness of a young Moabite girl named Ruth and encouraged in your faith to trust God in all things obediently.

Things have gotten more complicated since Adam and Eve and the book of Genesis. The rules of courtship have dissolved and have been replaced by ambiguity and uncertainty. Social media and texting have given people access to hundreds of friends but have increased fluidity, drama, and anxiety; the process of dating more often being described as stressful and depressing.  The desire to pair off is good, and Ben Stuart reminds us that this longing has existed since the beginning of creation. But more than we desire to be in a relationship, we should desire the right relationship. Deciding who to spend the rest of your life with is arguably one of the biggest decisions in your life, and we must not treat it as a flippant decision.  As we delve deeper into the dating and evaluation process, we hone in on what should be our ultimate desire: God’s plans and purposes for our lives.

The culture around us and our upbringing can offset how we view marriage entirely. Many of us grew up with divorced parents or were at least witnesses to failed relationships and family brokenness. After all, romance is powerful and can either be life-giving or disastrous. Our cynicism, rightfully so, may lead many of us to feel as if this covenant isn’t really treated as a covenant at all. In this track, Ben Stuart works to restore this perception, focusing on God’s design for marriage instead of on what culture has to say about it.  The marriages around you don’t have to be your current or potential future reality. There is hope to be found in a union between two people who love the Lord and keep His commandments, loving each other as Christ loved the Church and displaying God’s glory. Join us on this 4-day journey, unpacking the true mission of marriage and resetting our beliefs in its purpose. We must first see God’s original design if we want beautiful marriages.

Dating is not a status we sit in—it is a process we walk through. This process exists to help you evaluate one of the biggest decisions you may ever make in your life: whether or not someone is a good fit to commit your life to. Ben Stuart challenges us to start with finding the right person in the right way.  In this 4-day track, Ben explores how to meet the right person, shift from a consumer mindset to realistic dating expectations, align values through allegiance, and identify key qualities in a partner. We hope that at the conclusion of these four days together, you will feel more comfortable and confident in your decision-making in the dating process and that you will gain wisdom about the kind of person you choose to spend your life with.

Have you ever struggled with finding purpose in your singleness? In a world dominated by relationship status, it’s only natural that we are constantly focused on the next thing and, therefore, lose focus on what is right in front of us. But what if your singleness isn’t a problem to solve or a hurdle to clear? What if this time in your life could be purposeful and profound? In this four-day track, we will gain insight from Ben Stuart on how to not only navigate this season well but thrive in it as we focus on: Seeing singleness as a gift.Changing the headline of our stories from singleness to purposeful.Learning to give undistracted devotion to God.Learning to trust God.

Navigating the Scriptures for new believers and seasoned saints alike can be a daunting task. How do we unpack the historical and cultural context? How do we apply what was written to a specific group of people in the past to ourselves in our present day and circumstances? What does it mean to get an actual, in-depth look into the inspired Word of God? Over the course of the next three days, our aim is to deposit practical and insightful methods that will help you move from reading to studying scripture.

Welcome to Call on Heaven: A 25 Day Journey of Prayer and Fasting. It is our team’s hope that this journey and these days will prove to be formative, life-giving, and fortifying. Whether it is your first time participating in a fast or if fasting is a common spiritual practice in your life, we are glad you are here and confident God is going to use this time powerfully to draw you into a deeper relationship with Him. Fasting is a tangible discipline to help a believer become more like Christ. It is an invitation to set something aside, often physical food, for a period of time in order to prioritize and cultivate a deeper spiritual hunger for the things of God. Fasting helps you lean closer and listen more intently for the wisdom of the Spirit, and it helps remind you that Jesus is sufficient for all your needs. While fasting has largely been either mystified or neglected in the Western Church, it is a discipline worth pursuing by all believers. Donald Whitney writes that “Jesus expected his followers to fast,” as per his words in Matthew 6:16-17, “And when you fast…” Not to mention that Jesus Himself fasted, as seen in his 40-day fast in the wilderness immediately following his baptism. He practiced this discipline and taught his followers how to fast in accordance with the Scripture and in ways that pleased the heart of God. Fasting is an invitation to participate in a tradition of sanctification. It is to be done on purpose and for a purpose: to strengthen prayer, to seek God’s guidance, to grieve, or to repent and return to God; to align our ways with God’s ways and our thoughts with his thoughts. Fasting is a demonstration of humility, of surrender, and of a willingness to go without so that you can gain something truly eternal and life-altering: more of God. Throughout this 25-day journey, this resource will help you gain clarity about the essentials of fasting. We’ll give you four key themes to come around as you practice this discipline and aim to substitute something good for someone better. Each day we’ll walk you through Scripture, a short devotion, reflection questions or thoughts, and a prayer, all of which you can use to shift your focus more consistently toward God. Richard Foster wrote that “fasting must forever be centered on God. It must be God-initiated and God-ordained… fasting reminds us that we are sustained “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Food does not sustain us; God sustains us. In Christ. If you are nervous about practicing this discipline, know that emotions like these are completely normal and understandable – fasting can be intimidating but we encourage you that it is also worth the challenge. So stick with the practice and allow any cravings to lead you to hunger and thirst for God. We are eagerly expectant for how God is going to show up over the next 25 days, and we are encouraged to know that collectively, we will be seeking God with all of our hearts, our minds, our souls, and our strengths.

Jesus didn’t shy away from talking about death and what would come afterward for each of us. In fact, as Louie Giglio will show us, perhaps the most recognizable verse in all of Scripture paints a clear picture for us of the reality of eternity.

What do you do when you feel crushed? The doctor calls, the gavel drops, the report is printed, and you are left to pick up the pieces of pain you may have never seen coming. Do you shrink back in disappointment, or do you charge forward in faith? Over the next four days, Levi Lusko unpacks how we can navigate the pain points of our lives with fresh endurance.