Advent

This week, we begin the fourth prayer of Advent.

Advent Week 4 – Prayer for Love

Heavenly Father, the whole meaning of Christmas can be explained in a simple four-letter word…LOVE. You sent your gift of pure love to us that first Christmas. Love descended from heaven to be born of a virgin. Love lay in the scratchy hay of a manger in a meager barn in Bethlehem. All of your love, God, was robed in the delicate skin of a baby and wrapped in swaddling clothes. This final week of Advent helps us to reflect on the magnitude of love that was made manifest in Jesus.

The greatest gift of all came that first Christmas. It wasn’t wrapped in a beautiful package and set under a decorated tree. The greatest gift came wrapped in the flesh of baby Jesus and laid in the rough wood of a manger. Our perfect gift would later be rewrapped in the scars of our sin and nailed to the rugged wood of a cross on Calvary, all because of love.

Father, this final week of Advent, fill our hearts and minds with the significance of that truth. Thank you, Lord, for loving us enough, even in our flawed and sinful state, to send Jesus. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen. 

This week, we begin the third prayer of Advent.

Advent Week 3 – Prayer for Joy

This third week of Advent, let us remember that the good news of Jesus’ birth has the power to bring us great joy this Christmas season. Our joy isn’t dependent on what is going on in our life, in our world, or the people that we are with. It doesn’t depend on the gifts we give or the gifts we find under the tree. No earthly thing can ever give us complete joy. Our joy comes from you. That joy that flooded the hearts of the shepherds, the angels, the wise men, the hosts of heaven, and Mary and Joseph is the joy that still has the power to overwhelm our hearts with rejoicing. 

Father, you offer that same joy to us now if we know you and recognize Jesus as our Savior and Lord. You gave us a reason to celebrate when you gave us the unspeakable gift of Jesus Christ. You came to dwell among us. You went to Calvary’s cross for us. You overcame death and rose from the dead for us. You forgive our sins and give us eternal life when we believe in you. 

Our joy doesn’t come from our jobs, our family, our relationships, our finances, or our success. Our joy doesn’t come from what we have on earth or who we are with. Our joy is a gift. It is the gift that you gave us on that first Christmas in Jesus Christ. Our joy is encompassed in our Savior, King Jesus. Flood our hearts with joy this Advent season as we reflect on the good news of Jesus’ birth.

In Jesus’ precious name we pray. Amen.

This week, we begin the second prayer of Advent.

Advent Week 2 – HOPE.

Prayer for Peace

Father, in a season when every heart should be happy and light, many of us are struggling with the heaviness of life’s burdens that steal the joy right out of our stockings. Tragedy arrives as innocent victims suffer, and an inner voice whispers, “Be afraid!” We need your peace, Jesus. We confess that our hearts are too often filled with wonder of a different kind: wondering when the bills will be paid, when the fear will stop, when rest will come. Will it ever? Is the message still true? In a world where worry, not peace, prevails, stir up that good news again.

This Advent, make it real in our hearts. Never have we needed Your joy and peace more than now. Thank You for the gift of Jesus, our Immanuel, the Word made flesh. We not only need Your peace and joy, Lord, we crave it. You’ve promised rest for the weary, victory for the battle-scarred, peace for the anxious, and acceptance for the broken-hearted—not just at Advent, but every day of every year. Your name is still called “Wonderful,” “Counselor,” “The Mighty God,” “The Everlasting Father,” and “The Prince of Peace.”

We know that peace on earth can only come when hearts find peace with You. You are still our Joy. You are still our Peace. You are no longer a babe in the manger. You are Lord of lords and King of kings. And we still celebrate You as Lord—this Christmas and always.

In Jesus’ precious name, we pray. Amen. 

WEEKLY MEDITATION 1-7 DECEMBER 2025

This week, we begin the first prayer of Advent.

Advent Week 1 – HOPE. A Prayer for Hope

Father, every word in scripture points to the gift of hope that we have because of Christ Jesus. The Christmas story wasn’t the beginning of that message of hope because the Old Testament is full of glimpses of your plan to redeem your people and restore them into a relationship with you, but we can truly begin to see and understand just how great your love for us is when we read the story of Jesus’ birth in scripture.

Help us to see that you are with us. Nothing is too difficult, too messy, or too dirty for you. Jesus came to give us the gift of eternal life through the salvation that only you, our Heavenly Father, can give when we believe in your Son, repent of our sins, and confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior. 

On that first Christmas, you gave us the gift of hope wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Thank you, Father, for your immeasurable gift. In Jesus’ precious name, we pray. Amen. 

WEEKLY MEDITATION 26 DECEMBER – 1 JANUARY 2023

Father, as this year comes to an end, we ask for your continued blessing, guidance, health, protection, and love as we enter a new year. We ask that Your will be done here on Earth. We ask for your peace…in our lives and the world. We ask that you help us understand your word through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and open our hearts and minds so that we may understand and incorporate your word and will into our lives for your glory. Please give us peace and comfort in these difficult times and help us cling to you through your word and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Please help us to see your blessings in our lives and give us a spirit of gratitude to you and for you. We know you are in control and will use these challenging times for your good. Forgive us if we interpret your silence as a lack of your love. We know you will answer if we only stay faithful. In Jesus name, we pray.

– Amen

“As it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

“For I know the plans I have for you” Declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11)

“Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21)

WEEKLY MEDITATION 5-11 DECEMBER 2016

As you begin this week we ask that you meditate on the following scriptures and how they apply to your life and your growing relationship with the Lord.

Father, we ask that you help us understand your word through guidance of the Holy Spirit, and open our hearts and minds so that we may incorporate your guidance and will into our lives for your glory.

– Amen

Worship is the “thank you” that refuses to be silenced…..

“God love the world so much that he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world guilty, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16-17)

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord”, and if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9)

“We have seen and can testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14)

 

 

He Came Near. Christmas Message

John 3:16 …For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

As Christmas dawns across the world, we wish you and your family a very blessed and peaceful Christmas and New Year.  We also ask that you keep those less fortunate then yourselves, those who are persecuted for their Christian faith, those that are lonely and suffering, those in need and all those who need prayer in their lives, in your prayers.

“We have troubles all around us, but we are not defeated. We do not know what to do, but we do not give up the hope of living. We are persecuted, but God does not leave us. We are hurt sometimes, but we are not destroyed…So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made  new every day. We have small troubles for a while now, but they are helping us fain an eternal glory that is much greater than the troubles. We set our eyes not on what we see but on what we cannot see..” 1 Corinthians 4:8-9, 16-18

“Then suddenly there appeared with the angel an army of the troops of heaven (a heavenly knighthood), praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest [heaven], and on earth peace among men with whom He is well pleased [men of goodwill, of His favor]. Luke 2:13-14 AMP

We would like to leave you with this last Christmas Story from Max Lucado’s book Grace For the Moment. “In Bethlehem, the human being who best understood who God was and what he was doing, was a teenage girl in a smelly stable. As Mary looked into the face of the baby, she saw her son, her Lord, His majesty.  She couldn’t take her eyes off him!  Somehow Mary knew she was holding God.  So this is he, she thought. She remembered the words of the angel. “His kingdom will never end!”

He looks like anything but a king. His cry, though strong and healthy, was still the helpless and piercing cry of a baby. Majesty in the midst of mundane. Holiness in the filth of sheep manure and sweat. Divinity entering the world on the floor of a stable, through the womb of a teenager and in the presence of a carpenter. God came near! And Luke 1:33 says, “His kingdom will never end!”

Merry Christmas and God’s blessings be upon you.

– Sola Fide Ministries

Remember Our Persecuted Family This Christmas

Sponsor Christmas Care Packs and Village Outreach Kits through our brothers and sisters at Voice of the Martyrs.

Send a gift to persecuted Christians in one of the nations where VOM serves. Bless a child with a Christmas Care Pack full of items to use at school and home, including Christian literature such as a children’s Bible. Provide Christian workers with a Village Outreach Kit that includes tools to help them effectively reach others with the gospel. This year, packs will be distributed among the more than 60 nations where VOM works.

Please click here to learn more or sponsor a care pack.

The Voice of the Martyrs is a non-profit,inter-denominational Christian organization dedicated to assisting our persecuted family worldwide. VOM was founded in 1967 by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, who was imprisoned 14 years in Communist Romania for his faith in Christ. His wife, Sabina, was imprisoned for three years. In the 1960s, Richard, Sabina, and their son, Mihai, were ransomed out of Romania and came to the United States. Through their travels, the Wurmbrands spread the message of the atrocities that Christians face in restricted nations, while establishing a network of offices dedicated to assisting the persecuted church. The Voice of the Martyrs continues in this mission around the world today through the following main purposes:

WEEKLY MEDITATION 30 NOVEMBER – 6 DECEMBER

As you begin this week we ask that you meditate on the following scriptures and how they apply to your life and your growing relationship with the Lord.

Father, we ask that you help us understand your word through guidance of the Holy Spirit, and open our hearts and minds so that we may incorporate your guidance and will into our lives for your glory.

– Amen

Worship is the “thank you” that refuses to be silenced…..

“I urge you now to live the life to which God called you. Always be humble, gentle, and patient, accepting each other in love. You are joined together with peace through the Spirit, so make every effort to continue together in the this way” (Ephesians 4:1-3)

“Love each other deeply, because love will cause many sins to be forgiven. Open your homes to each other, without complaining. Each of you has received a gift to use to serve others. Be good servants of God’s various gifts of grace” (1 Peter 4:  8-10)

“Be sure that no one pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to do what is good for each other and for all people” (1 Thessalonians 5:15)