Advent is a season of expectant waiting and a time for preparation as we make ourselves ready for the coming, or birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The word advent means the arrival of something of great importance. I can’t think of anything more important than the one who saved us. Many Christians have faith that this is a time when we see things progress in the natural. Is there something you have been waiting for? Have you pressed into your relationship with God? Is God dropping hints to you in the glorious ways he communicates?

There is a parable that Jesus tells to help us better understand about how the Kingdom of God operates. A man sells everything he has to buy land that possesses hidden treasure. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure in a field, which someone found and hid: then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” ” Again, the kingdom of heaven is a like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. 

This teaching is much like what the scripture says in Matthew… Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it

What do you think our Lord means by losing our life for his sake? It is actually very simple but not easy to live out. Jesus is speaking that we are not of our own. We do not own our bodies or anything else that we are stewarding including our children. It is the complete opposite of human thinking. We think self, self, and self instead of Jesus, Jesus, and Jesus. Jesus is telling ( not suggesting) that we must lose our independent ways and seek his ways which will progress into his will for our lives. This verse is a principle of the kingdom of God and not to be taken lightly.

Think about all our wrong thinking and doing even though we have a guide, a wise counselor beckoning us to come closer and learn. Now is the time to make God the serious business of your life. Now is the time! In order to have true life now and in eternity we must lose ownership to ourselves and that could very well include our possessions, actually God’s possessions. ( sell your possessions and give to the poor, provide yourself with purses that will not wear out, an exhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys). It could be anything that we hold higher than God himself.

As God sifts through our lives, we will then have life. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. If we value the beauty of holiness, we shall not crave the luxurious of life. Christ is our Master, and we are his servants;not only working servants but waiting servants. We must be as men that wait for their Lord, that sit up while he stays out late, to be ready to receive him. In this Christ alluded to his own ascension to heaven, his coming to call his people to him by death, and his return to judge the world. We are uncertain to the time of his coming to us, we should therefore always be ready. If men this take care of their houses, let us be thus wise for our souls.

Make surrendering a part of your Advent this year as you wait expectantly upon the Lord. All the gifts that we really want are there as we make the exchange of our old ways with his new ways.

Food for thought….

How often do you give God even a thought?

How often do you thank God?

How often do you really bow your head and pray?

How often do you open your bible, read, and receive?

How often do you sacrifice for the sake of another without wanting something in return?

Is God trying to reveal something he wants you to do but you still have not listened and obeyed him?

Again, Advent is a season of preparation ( the above) that direct our hearts and minds to Christ as well as his second coming and his birth.