By: Johnny Giuca, Youth and Young Adult Pastor at C1NAZ
Have you ever been excited to hear someone speak?
Maybe it was a conference you were eager to attend, a guest speaker you knew was going to be at your church on Sunday, or maybe a recently released podcast episode from your favorite show.
Regardless of the situation, there are certain people who simply make us eager to hear what they have to say.
The Psalmist certainly experienced this while writing Psalm 85. In verse 8 he says this: “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak.”
There is a sense of expectancy in his tone. He is ready to hear from the Lord Himself.
That same verse goes on to say that God will “speak peace to His people”.
Today, so often, the Advent season feels like anything but peaceful. Why is that? This time of year, when we intentionally think about the reality of the coming of our Messiah, shouldn’t peace be our natural response?
But that’s not always the case.
In a world where so many voices around us are clamoring for our attention, as we enter a season of busyness and unrest, let us ask ourselves: What does the Lord want to speak into my life? Could it be that he wants to speak a word of peace to you, today?
I believe so. But I also believe He wants to speak something deeper as well.
In the next verse, the Psalmist says that God’s “salvation is near to those who fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land”.
God wishes to distill peace to His people. But he also wishes to do a work in and through us so powerfully that it would extend outwards to the rest of the world–and this world certainly needs it!
Could the Psalmist’s words ring true in our day?
What would it look like if His very glory rested upon us and those around us? What would it look like for revival to break out in our towns and cities across this land?
Those of us that are more pessimistic in nature may have a hard time imagining such a thing but just think about the words of Paul in 1 Thessalonians 1.
In addressing the believers there in Thessalonica, he applauds them for how they received God’s Word. Verse 6 mentions how they became “imitators…of the Lord” and that they “received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit.”
Best of all, verse 8 states that their faith began to spread “everywhere”!
These are people who gave up idol worship, began serving the true God, and were now beginning to make an impact in the land around them.
Do you think it’s possible that God may want to do that with us today?
Praise God that we can be saved and find peace in the chaos, but let’s not keep our faith to ourselves! Let’s live in such a way that our faith is contagious and many around us are drawn to the Lord through our example, just like the account of the Thessalonians.
God is working all around us and we don’t want to miss it. This Advent season let’s be intentional about living out our faith and being an example to this nation and world, and pray that God’s glory would indeed “dwell in our land”!