A Prayer Of Welcome To God On The Second Sunday of Advent

DEC 6 – Advent 2

This is the Second Sunday of Advent.  Our Advent wreath with the four candles traditionally representing hope, faith, joy, and peace help us to reflect and focus our prayers.  We remember and give thanks to the God who loved us so much that He put on flesh and blood to die for our sins.  We pray in faith and anticipate the coming again of Jesus  who will give us new bodies and a new home with Him forever. We light the second purple candle this week – the candle of “Faith.”

The song “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” helps us understand the faith we focus on today.  While Israel would have sung the song in expectation of Christ’s first coming, the church now sings the song in commemoration of that first coming and in expectation of His second coming in glory at the end of time.

Here are just 3 verses that help us focus on the main points:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appears.

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Dayspring, from on high,

And cheer us by Thy drawing nigh;

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,

And death's dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come

And open wide our heav'nly home;

Make safe the way that leads on high,

And close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

Christ has come.  Christ has died.  Christ will come again.  This is the faith we hold.  This is the faith we pray in today.  Someone put all these things into a beautiful prayer.  We’ll begin there today.

Dear Father God, how we rejoice when we call to our minds the glorious truth that the eternal Light of the world came to earth as a baby to become the Redeemer of mankind, to give His life for a lost world and to pour peace and hope into the hearts of a people who were estranged from their Creator God.

Father, may our lives reflect Jesus' love as we look back in time to the first Advent of our Lord and Saviour, but let us never forget that there is a future Advent, a second coming when the earth will be filled with the glory of God once again, as the waters cover the sea.

Lord, we know that You are returning, not as a tiny baby lying in a humble manger and wrapped in swaddling clothes, but as a conquering King Who is to come to rescue His people Israel. And Lord, we know that first You are to come in the clouds to take Your church back to Your heavenly home, when the dead in Christ will rise first and we will all be changed in a moment to become like You, Lord Jesus.

Lord I pray that Your Church will prepare herself for Your soon return. May Your Body be ready for that glorious day when You come to take us home to be with Yourself. Lord, I beseech You that Your Bride, who is the Church, will be pure and holy without spot and wrinkle or any such thing. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Source: https://prayer.knowing-jesus.com/Prayers-for-Advent

In this season of expectation, we prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah

Into the bustle of our lives and the hard to find moments of solitude, we prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah

Into our homes and situations along with friends and families we prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah

Into our hearts, and those often hidden parts of our lives, we prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah

For beneath the surface of your story is an inescapable fact, You entered this world as vulnerable as any one of us in order to nail that vulnerability to the cross. Our fears, our insecurities and our sins all that can separate us from God exchanged by your Grace for Love.

We cannot comprehend the reasoning only marvel that Salvation comes to us through a baby born in a stable, and reaches out to a world in need.

In this season of anticipation, we prepare to welcome Christ Jesus, Messiah