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An Advent Prayer: When Your Inner-Ache Intensifies

     He [God] has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors. Luke 1:51-55 (NIV)

Dear heavenly Father, I awoke today with a deep ache in my heart—an ache that makes Mary’s prayer timely and encouraging. I am grateful beyond measure that you are a God who remembers to be merciful. With the gift of Jesus, you remembered all the promises you made to Abraham and to his descendants, which includes me. I’m humbled and overwhelmed.

You promised Abraham you’d take him to a land of your choosing to make of him a nation for great blessing. Israel became the “national womb” for the Messiah—through whom you are redeeming a family from every race, tribe, tongue and people group (Gen. 12-17). No one can fulfill these promises but you.

Like Mary, Abraham could not have begun to imagine how all of this would play out. But the promises you made to Abraham, and the prayer the Spirit prayed through Mary, all find their fulfillment in your Son, Jesus. I praise you for your memory and your mercy, Father. Both of these answer to the deep ache in my heart today.

Father, thank you for remembering your promise to complete your good work in me, and in your world. I am so ready to be made completely like Jesus. I am so ready to live in a world of no more brokenness, sin, and death; no more mourning, crying and pain; no more fractured relationships and unfulfilled longings, and no more “not yet and not enough”; no more tensions, conflicts, and stress.

Until that Day, thank you for being the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Thank you for promising, and delivering, new mercies every morning, including this one. So very Amen I pray, with the faith of Abraham and the humility of Mary, in Jesus’ loving name.

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