Following the Star 
Pause
In Advent we wait for the coming Prince of Peace – and we are called to peace.
In a moment of stillness, pray these familiar words: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.”
May you sense the ways you are called to actively bring the peace our world is longing for.
Listen
But according to his promise we are waiting for a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.
Therefore, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found by him in peace—pure and faultless. Consider the patience of our Lord to be salvation, just as our dear friend and brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given to him, speaking of these things in all his letters.
2 Peter 3:13-16a
Think
As we end our second week of Advent, we remember that we still haven’t arrived at our destination. The place where we’re headed and the experience of God we will someday have are not yet here. If we were in the back of the car on a long road trip, the answer to the question would be, “No, we are not there yet. Get busy and keep waiting.”
The words of 2 Peter remind us that waiting is not a passive exercise; it is active. While we wait, we make every effort to embody peace. And we remember that peace is not just a passive experience, it also takes work and preparation. So we do not just sit and wait.
There is a greater hope on the horizon. While we do not fully feel it all yet, we receive the promise through the power of God in the presence of the Holy Spirit. And as we wait, may we feel assured in the ways we act to bring about the peace from God that our world needs.
Chris Aho
Question to Ponder:
Have you ever had to actively wait? Can you imagine how you might actively make peace?
Pray
God of hope and peace, in a world with so little peace, help me to be a peacemaker who actively brings peace.
Though this work may be hard, I know you equip your people for this work.
Grant me wisdom and courage for the living of this season.
Amen.
Go
Practice what you have received… and the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
adapted from Philippians 4:7, 9
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