Advent Day 19: Love

THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT – THURSDAY December 21, 2023

READ Micah 4:1–7
Micah describes the New Jerusalem where the Messiah will dwell. He will rule, and all nations will know peace.

REFLECT
We read yesterday in Revelation 21:4: “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Jonathan Edwards in his sermon “Heaven, a World of Love” puts it like this:

The most stately cities on earth, however magnificent their buildings, yet have their foundations in the dust, and their streets dirty and defiled, and made to be trodden under foot; but the very streets of this heavenly city are of pure gold, like unto transparent glass, and its foundations are of precious stones, and its gates are pearls…. There are many principles contrary to love, which make this world like a tempestuous sea. Selfishness, and envy, and revenge, and jealousy, and kindred passions keep life on earth in a constant tumult…

But oh! What rest is there in that world which the God of peace and love fills with his own gracious presence, and in which the Lamb of God lives and reigns, filling it with the brightest and sweetest beams of his love; where there is nothing to disturb or offend, and no being or object to be seen that is not surrounded with perfect amiableness and sweetness…where there is no enemy and no enmity; but perfect love in every heart and to every being; where there is perfect harmony among all the inhabitants, no one envying another, but everyone rejoicing in the happiness of every other…where love is always mutual and reciprocated to the full; where there is no hypocrisy or dissembling, but perfect simplicity and sincerity; where there is no treachery, or unfaithfulness, or inconstancy, or jealousy in any form…where there is no division through different opinions or interests, but where all in that glorious and loving society shall be most nearly and divinely related, and each shall belong to every other, and all shall enjoy each other in perfect prosperity and riches and honor, without any sickness, or grief, or persecution, or sorrow, or any enemy to molest them, or any busybody to create jealousy or misunderstanding, or mar the perfect, and holy, and blessed peace that reigns in heaven!”

That is our future. That is our living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

PRAY
Thank God for the amazing future he has promised and planned for us. Pray that God would help us contemplate our future and set our minds “on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:1-4).