The Four Sundays of Advent!

Generally, the four Sundays that precede the Christmas day are called ‘Advent' Sundays. Four different themes are assigned for each of those Sundays by the Church for reflection. The first advent Sunday stands for hope or promise and points to the many prophecies that were fulfilled in the birth of Christ. The second one stands for faithful preparation for the fulfillment of the prophecies of His second coming. The third advent Sunday stands for Joy for Jesus came for the humble, unimportant people like the shepherds, too. The fourth one stands for peace! Jesus came to bring peace between God and man. He came to go to the Cross so that your sins and my sins can be forgiven. The four Sundays are celebrated by lighting advent candles for Jesus came as the ‘Light of the world'!

As I meditated upon the hope, faith, joy, and peace that Christmas stands for, one thing emerged on the top of my mind and that was forgiveness. In order to truly enjoy the spirit of Christmas, first, our hearts have to be filled with forgiveness. People hurt us all the time. When the people closest to us break our trust, it hurts very deeply. We have no control over the actions of others. They may hurt us again too! But we have two options. We can either keep nursing our hurt, hang on to them, and end up as the loser, losing our joy and peace or forgive the person and move on. The choice is ours!

The story of the unforgiving servant is given in Matthew 18:21-35. It is about a man who had been forgiven an enormous debt who was unwilling to forgive a small debt owed to him. The shock of the story is that he was so unforgiving after having received such mercy himself. Jesus applied the story to his disciples in verse 35: "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."Jesus told this story in order to impress us with the greatness of God's forgiveness, the enormity of our own sins and the danger of an unforgiving spirit.

My friend, talking about forgiveness is easy. For implementing it, we need power from above! When we focus on ourselves, we are consumed by self-pity and then forgiveness seems impossible! Let us focus God and forgive those who have hurt us so that we can truly enjoy the love, joy, and peace of this Christmas season!

Categories: Weekly DevotionalsAuthor: Hephzibah StephenDate: 11th December 2018 Share: newsletterDisplay date: 12th December 2018

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