Advent Day 21: Love

THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT – SATURDAY December 21, 2024

READ Philippians 2:5–11
In this amazing description of Christ and his mission on earth, we learn that one day all will declare that Jesus Christ is Lord.

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

REFLECT
It is because Jesus laid aside the privileges of his deity and became incarnate as a lowborn man, even as low as a servant or slave (Philippians 2), that he will one day be acknowledged as Lord and all creation will bow and sing in worship. The incarnation is the first step in Jesus’ voluntary submission of himself to the plan worked out within the Trinity before the foundation of the world. His path led lower and lower, to death on a cross, but one day he will be praised and glorified by all as Lord and King, and through his sacrifice we can experience love in a profound way!

PRAY
Pray for all those who are suffering in any way—from disease, loneliness, grief, oppression, or any other sorrow. Pray for those for whom Christmas is a difficult season due to loss, grief, or loneliness. Pray that they would know the loving provision of God and that through him they might experience his love in every circumstance.