The Upper Room Devotional 10th December 2023
The Upper Room Devotional 10th December 2023, Sunday Message by Mark H. Crumpler (Pennsylvania, USA)
TOPIC: 2nd Sunday of Advent
TODAY’S READING
Luke 2:1-7
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. – Luke 2:4 (NIV)
Every year, many of us enter the Christmas season with a vision of the perfect Christmas. We dream of smooth and safe travels, gatherings filled with laughter, no one sidelined by illness, gifts perfectly selected and joyfully received. But rarely do we get that ideal Christmas!
Even the first Christmas was not perfect. The government had issued a decree, so Mary and Joseph packed what they needed and made their way to Bethlehem. As she neared the end of her pregnancy, probably the last thing Mary wanted to do was leave her home and her community of friends.
Maybe in this first week of Advent some situations are already far from ideal. Family tensions, financial burdens, health challenges, work-place stress — any and all of these can steal our joy. But God comes to be with us in the life we have right now, not the life we wish we had. Circumstances we resent won’t change the truth of Christmas. The first Christmas in Bethlehem is a powerful reminder to us that God comes to be with us in places and circumstances that are sometimes less than ideal — offering us the light of eternal love.
TODAY’S PRAYER
Gracious God, we need your presence with us in all our circumstances. Come this Advent, we pray, and meet us in the reality we are living right now. Amen.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
God meets us in all the circumstances of our life.
PRAYER FOCUS
Those traveling at Christmastime
The Upper Room is a daily devotional magazine published in more than 30 languages and 100 countries around the world. The daily meditations are written by readers of the magazine and others interested in sharing their faith experiences through writing—both laity and clergy, published authors and new writers. The meditations are stories of real people working to live faithfully with the Bible as their touchstone. Every day, readers of The Upper Room around the world read the same story in many different languages and pray the same prayer together.
READ MORE TOPICS: OPEN HEAVENS, OUR DAILY BREAD, IN TOUCH, SEEDS OF DESTINY, STREAMS OF JOY, JOEL OSTEEN, MOUNTAIN TOP LIFE, DCLM DAILY MANNA, UCB WORD FOR TODAY
