Advent is the anticipatory season leading up to the celebration of the birth of Christ during Christmastide. One of the many practices of the Christian faith during this time is a daily meditation on Scripture, beginning four weeks before the beginning of Christmastide. For 2021, that means day one is November 28, and the fourth week will conclude on December 25th.
Advent Week 1
Day 1: Romans 13:11-14
Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, and the day is near; so let us discard the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk with decency, as in the daytime: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.
Day 2: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Grace to you and peace from God
our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I always thank my God for you because of the grace of God given to you in
Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in him in every way, in all
speech and all knowledge. In this way, the testimony about Christ was
confirmed among you, so that you do not lack any
spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for the revelation of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you
will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is
faithful; you were called by him into fellowship with his Son, Jesus
Christ our Lord.
Day 3: Mark 13:33-37
“Watch! Be alert!
For you don’t know when the time is coming.
“It is like a man on a journey, who left his house, gave authority to his
servants, gave each one his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to be alert.
Therefore be alert, since you don’t know when the master of the house is
coming—whether in the evening or at midnight or at the crowing of the rooster
or early in the morning. Otherwise, when he comes suddenly he might find you
sleeping. And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Be alert!”
Day 4: John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.
Day 5: John 1:6-9
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
Day 6: Jeremiah 33:14-16
“Look, the days
are coming”—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
“when I will fulfill the good promise
that I have spoken
concerning the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
In those days and at that time
I will cause a Righteous Branch
to sprout up for David,
and he will administer justice
and righteousness in the land.
In those days Judah will be saved,
and Jerusalem will dwell securely,
and this is what she will be named:
The Lord Is Our Righteousness.
Day 7: Isaiah 60:19-22
The sun will no longer be your light by day,
and the brightness of the moon
will not shine on you.
The Lord will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your
splendor.
Your sun will no longer set,
and your moon will not fade;
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
and the days of your sorrow
will be over.
All your people will be
righteous;
they will possess the land
forever;
they are the branch I planted,
the work of my hands,
so that I may be glorified.
The least will become a
thousand,
the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the Lord;
I will accomplish it quickly in
its time.
Week 2
Day 1: Romans 15:4-13
For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.
Therefore welcome one another, just as Christ also welcomed
you, to the glory of God. For I say that Christ became a servant of the
circumcised on behalf of God’s truth, to confirm the promises to the
fathers, and so that Gentiles may glorify God for his mercy. As
it is written,
Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles,
and I will sing praise to your name.
Again it says,
Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people!
And again,
Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
let all the peoples praise him!
And again, Isaiah says,
The root of Jesse will appear,
the one who rises to rule the Gentiles;
the Gentiles will hope in him.
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you
believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Day 2: Psalm 43:3-6
Send your light and your truth; let them lead me.
Let them bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling place.
Then I will come to the altar of God,
to God, my greatest joy.
I will praise you with the lyre,
God, my God.
Why, my soul, are you so dejected?
Why are you in such turmoil?
Put your hope in God, for I will still praise him,
my Savior and my God.
Day 3: Psalm 27:1-4
The Lord is my light and my salvation—
whom should I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my
life—
whom should I dread?
When evildoers came against me to devour my flesh,
my foes and my enemies stumbled and fell.
Though an army deploys against me,
my heart will not be afraid;
though a war breaks out against me,
I will still be confident.
I have asked one thing from the Lord;
it is what I desire:
to dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
gazing on the beauty of the Lord
and seeking him in his temple.
Day 4: Psalm 119:105-106
Your word is a lamp for my feet
and a light on my path.
I have solemnly sworn
to keep your righteous judgments.
Day 5: John 12:35-36
Jesus answered, “The light will be with you only a little longer. Walk while you have the light so that darkness doesn’t overtake you. The one who walks in darkness doesn’t know where he’s going. While you have the light, believe in the light so that you may become children of light.” Jesus said this, then went away and hid from them.
Day 6: Ephesians 5:6-14
Let no one deceive you with empty arguments, for God’s wrath is coming on the disobedient because of these things. Therefore, do not become their partners. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light— for the fruit of the light consists of all goodness, righteousness, and truth— testing what is pleasing to the Lord. Don’t participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what is done by them in secret. Everything exposed by the light is made visible, for what makes everything visible is light. Therefore it is said:
Get up, sleeper, and rise up from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.
Day 7: 1 Peter 2:5-8
you yourselves, as living stones, a spiritual house, are being
built to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to
God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture:
See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and honored cornerstone,
and the one who believes in him
will never be put to shame.
So honor will come to you who believe; but for the unbelieving,
The stone that the builders rejected—
this one has become the cornerstone,
and
A stone to stumble over,
and a rock to trip over.
They stumble because they disobey the word; they were
destined for this.
Week 3
Day 1: Isaiah 60:1-3
Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord shines over you.
For look, darkness will cover
the earth,
and total darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will shine over you,
and his glory will appear over
you.
Nations will come to your
light,
and kings to your shining
brightness.
Day 2: 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake. For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
Day 3: 1 John 1:4-7
We are writing these things so that our joy may be
complete.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you:
God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him. If we say,
“We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are
lying and are not practicing the truth. If we walk in the light as he
himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of
Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
Day 4: John 3:16-21
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
Day 5: Isaiah 40:1-11
“Comfort, comfort my people,”
says your God.
“Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and announce to her
that her time of hard service is over,
her iniquity has been pardoned,
and she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.”
A voice of one crying out:
Prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness;
make a straight highway for our God in the desert.
Every valley will be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill will be leveled;
the uneven ground will become smooth
and the rough places, a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will
appear,
and all humanity together will see it,
for the mouth of the Lord has
spoken.
A voice was saying, “Cry out!”
Another said, “What should I cry out?”
“All humanity is grass,
and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flowers fade
when the breath of the Lord blows on them;
indeed, the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flowers fade,
but the word of our God remains forever.”
Zion, herald of good news,
go up on a high mountain.
Jerusalem, herald of good news,
raise your voice loudly.
Raise it, do not be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah,
“Here is your God!”
See, the Lord God comes
with strength,
and his power establishes his rule.
His wages are with him,
and his reward accompanies him.
He protects his flock like a shepherd;
he gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them in the fold of his garment.
He gently leads those that are nursing.
Day 6: John 9:1-7
As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
After he said these things he spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he left, washed, and came back seeing.
Day 7: Luke 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, God’s word came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the vicinity of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
Prepare the way for the Lord;
make his paths straight!
Every valley will be filled,
and every mountain and hill will be made low;
the crooked will become straight,
the rough ways smooth,
and everyone will see the salvation of God.
Week 4
Day 1: Isaiah 11:1-10
Then a shoot will grow from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will
rest on him—
a Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a Spirit of counsel and strength,
a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
His delight will be in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge
by what he sees with his eyes,
he will not execute justice
by what he hears with his ears,
but he will judge the poor righteously
and execute justice for the oppressed of the land.
He will strike the land
with a scepter from his mouth,
and he will kill the wicked
with a command from his lips.
Righteousness will be a belt around his hips;
faithfulness will be a belt around his waist.
The wolf will dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the goat.
The calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf will be
together,
and a child will lead them.
The cow and the bear will graze,
their young ones will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like cattle.
An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit,
and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den.
They will not harm or destroy each other
on my entire holy mountain,
for the land will be as full
of the knowledge of the Lord
as the sea is filled with water.
On that day the root of Jesse
will stand as a banner for the peoples.
The nations will look to him for guidance,
and his resting place will be glorious.
Day 2: Zephaniah 3:14-17
Sing
for joy, Daughter Zion;
shout loudly, Israel!
Be glad and celebrate with all
your heart,
Daughter Jerusalem!
The Lord has removed your punishment;
he has turned back your enemy.
The King of Israel, the Lord, is among you;
you need no longer fear harm.
On that day it will be said to
Jerusalem:
“Do not fear;
Zion, do not let your hands
grow weak.
The Lord your God is among you,
a warrior who saves.
He will rejoice over
you with gladness.
He will be quiet in his
love.
He will delight in you with
singing.”
Day 3: Matthew 1:18-25
The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary
had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together
that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. So her husband, Joseph, being
a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to
divorce her secretly.
But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him
in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your
wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She
will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will
save his people from their sins.”
Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord
through the prophet:
See, the virgin will become pregnant
and give birth to a son,
and they will name him Immanuel,
which is translated “God is with us.”
When Joseph woke up, he did as the Lord’s angel had commanded
him. He married her but did not have sexual relations with her until she
gave birth to a son. And he named him Jesus.
Day 4: Luke 2:8-20
In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and
keeping watch at night over their flock. Then an angel of the
Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around
them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Don’t be
afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be
for all the people: Today in the city of David a Savior was born for
you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be the sign for
you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel,
praising God and saying:
Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and peace on earth to people he favors!
When the angels had left them and returned to heaven, the shepherds said to one
another, “Let’s go straight to Bethlehem and see what has happened, which the
Lord has made known to us.”
They hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in
the manger. After seeing them, they reported the message they were told
about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the
shepherds said to them. But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her
heart and meditating on them. The shepherds returned, glorifying and
praising God for all the things they had seen and heard, which were just
as they had been told.
Day 5: Matthew 4:14-16
This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
along the road by the sea, beyond the Jordan,
Galilee of the Gentiles.
The people who live in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those living in the land of the shadow of death,
a light has dawned.
Day 6: Isaiah 2:1-5
The vision that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem:
In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s
house will be established
at the top of the mountains
and will be raised above the hills.
All nations will stream to it,
and many peoples will come and say,
“Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us about his ways
so that we may walk in his paths.”
For instruction will go out of Zion
and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem.
He will settle disputes among the nations
and provide arbitration for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plows
and their spears into pruning knives.
Nation will not take up the sword against nation,
and they will never again train for war.
House of Jacob,
come and let’s walk in the Lord’s light.
Day 7: Luke 2:25-33
There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was
righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel’s consolation, and
the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy
Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s
Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple. When the parents
brought in the child Jesus to perform for him what was customary under the
law, Simeon took him up in his arms, praised God, and said,
Now, Master,
you can dismiss your servant in peace,
as you promised.
For my eyes have seen your salvation.
You have prepared it
in the presence of all peoples—
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and glory to your people Israel.
His father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him.