Prayers of Preparation: the Restoring God
Midweek in Advent 3
December 17, 2008
Psalm 126:1-6
The God who listens to us is the God who has favor on us. He hears our
plea for mercy and forgives and saves us. He has favor on us because
of His mercy. These are good things to know when it seems like God
doesn't hear us. It's comforting to know when we wonder if God loves
us. What it means day after day is that God doesn't give up on you. He
doesn't leave you in the lurch. He stays with you no matter what.
Have you seriously messed something up? God doesn't hold it against
you. Have you strained a relationship because you made some
assumptions instead of putting the best construction on things? The
other person may hold it against you but God will restore you to
Himself. Do you find yourself feeling far away from God? He will come
near to you when you most need it.
Restoration. One of the most important things we need to know about is
God's work of restoration. During this season of preparation we need
to know that God is a restoring God. Our whole lives are lives of
preparation, we need God's work of restoration. We are preparing
ultimately for life with God in heaven. The people of God in the Old
Testament were preparing for the actual birth of the Savior. Since He
has already come we do not need to prepare for that. Our celebration
of His birth focuses our attention on Christ. We prepare for our
celebration of Christmas by meditating on the reason He came. He came
for the cross. Christmas is ultimately about the cross. Without the
cross there is no place awaiting us in heaven.
The Old Testament people of God placed their hope in the coming of the
Savior. We rejoice that our hope is in the fact that He came. Our hope
also looks to the future. To the day when He will return. We will not
know glory until that day. That is why preparation is necessary. That
is why we pray to our God who listens and ask for His favor upon us.
His mercy and love restores us. We are brought back to His loving
care. We too often forget the devastation sin wreaks on our lives. We
are not in a right relationship with God when we are caught up in our
sin. He is constantly calling us to repentance so that He may restore
us.
We so often brush our sin aside. We often treat it as a minor defect.
Our sin separates us from God. His restoration of us is a serious
matter. We need it and He knows that. He also knows that only He can
provide it. If He doesn't act to save us we are eternally lost from
Him. His answer to that is His Son. His salvation of us is His pure
joy in giving us a gift beyond measure, Jesus the Savior.
The very fact that we can pray to our God in the midst of our sinful
lives shows us that God is merciful to us and desires to restore us.
He not only desires it, He acts on it. He brings it about. He turns
our despair into hope. Our mourning into joy.
The next time we gather here mid-week we will be celebrating the birth
of our Savior. It goes without saying that we rejoice in this
miraculous event. It also should go without saying that we never cease
to rejoice in it. It should go without saying that we never tire of
praying to our God, because He never tires of listening to us, of
shining His favor upon us, of restoring us to His eternal care. Our
preparation is continual because our need is continual.
Our only hope is in the God whose love and favor, mercy and
restoration is never-ending. Our only hope is in the God who sent the
Savior, accomplishing salvation that never ends. Our only hope is in
the God of Bethlehem and Calvary and the Word and Sacraments through
which He comes to us. Our only hope is in the God of heaven who has
heard, who has shown favor, who has restored us. This is why we
believe and rejoice that His coming again on the Last Day will be a
day of rejoicing and our ultimate restoration. Amen.
SDG
--
Pastor Paul L. Willweber
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS]
San Diego, California
princeofpeacesd.net
three-taverns.blogspot.com
It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything
except where the marks of the Church are concerned.
[Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian]
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