Christmas Family Devotional Guide

The Week of Hope

For hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus, the Hebrew people believed that one day God would send a great leader to deliver them from bondage and fear. Their nation was captured, people were taken captive, and their temple was destroyed. But the saddest part was that they knew that their sin had forever separated them from God.

But they never gave up hope. They knew that they needed a redeemer and that God’s Anointed would one day come to shepherd them.

The world today is also in need of the Redeemer’s leadership and hope. Jesus Christ came and gave hope to all who would believe in Him.

(Light the first purple candle)
As the first purple candle is lit say: “I light this candle on the first Sunday of Advent to remind us of the hope we have in our Redeemer. Jesus came to give us the hope of our salvation and the hope of our future glory.

Read: Isaiah 7:14
Micah 7:7

“O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear. Rejoice, Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel! (John Mason Neale, Henry Sloane Coffin).

Have a family discussion on the hope that you have as a family because of our Emmanuel.