Pause

Joy is elusive. Just when we think we have found it, joy can be snatched from us in a single moment. Despair threatens to take its place and we find ourselves searching again for meaning.

In times like these, it is as important as ever to seek the quiet, to wait with anticipation that joy will return. These next moments hold the promise of just such a time.

When you are ready, click on “The Word of God” below for today's scripture and then continue to follow the remaining steps of the devotion.

Listen

The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time I will bring you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord.

Zephaniah 3:17-20

Think

There’s nothing quite so wonderful as getting a second chance. The prophet Zephaniah promised a second chance to the Hebrew people in today’s scripture. He told them that the disaster they’d been living through would be removed from them and God would come to live among them, to renew them with his love.

As we wait for Christmas, we can hope for and expect the same: the disaster of our lives will be removed from us. God will come to live among us and renew us with God’s love. Thanks be to God for a second chance.

Amy Butler

Pray

Thank you, God, for giving me a second chance. Amen.

Go

Move quietly now through your day.
Joy, peace and hope remain.
Seek out the company of friends,
Remind yourself that God is near,
And allow small moments of joy to return
For the healing of your heart.