Explore our Advent Devotionals for your family! This week’s theme is Faith. Learn more about how you can develop your family’s faith this Christmas season.
Explore our Advent Devotionals for your family! Within each day of the Advent Devotions, your family can read through specific excerpts from the Bible. Then, your family can engage in meaningful discussion with our questions and conversation starters.
During the second week of Advent, focus on the theme of Faith. Keep reading to learn more about how you can help your family develop their faith for the Christmas season.
Read: John 3:16-17; Mark 1:3-4
As the Advent season begins, it is important to remember that this time is one of preparation. Just as a family prepares for a guest to visit, so we prepare our hearts and lives for the celebration of Christ as a child.
Have your children help clean your home as though you were expecting a very important guest. As you clean, talk with your children about cleaning their hearts through prayer and repentance. Intentional preparation of our hearts and our homes reflects the anticipation we feel as Christmas draws closer.
Read: Genesis 37:23-28; Genesis 50:15-21
Have you ever felt like nothing in your life could go right? If so, you might have felt like Joseph. Throughout his life, Joseph experienced a variety of pain and difficult times. From his brothers selling him into slavery to being unfairly locked away in prison, Joseph experienced rough times. But God had a plan for him.
God used Joseph to interpret dreams, help a whole nation prepare for famine, and save millions of lives. Earlier in Joseph’s life, God made him a promise that Joseph would eventually bring God glory and save lives. Little did Joseph know that those promises would be fulfilled! Thousands of years later, there would be someone else to keep all of God’s promises and save more lives than Joseph could have ever imagined. His name was Jesus.
Read: Deuteronomy 32:7; Deuteronomy 5:1-20
Have you ever heard of the Ten Commandments? Do they ever seem like an outdated set of rules to follow? If they do, you’re not alone. However, God created the Ten Commandments with a greater purpose in mind, and surprisingly enough it wasn’t so that you could follow the commandments perfectly every single day of your life.
That’s right. God knew from the very beginning that we could never perfectly follow the Ten Commandments or any rule that He created. That’s because He cares far more about our obedience, faith, and belief in Him than our ability to follow rules. And eventually, God knew He would send His son Jesus to fulfill the Ten Commandments and every rule ever created. Because Jesus is the only one who can perfectly follow every rule. Because of Jesus, we can have that relationship with God.
Have you ever needed rescue? Today’s passage is about how some of God’s people were rescued from an unlikely source – a woman named Rahab. And even though Rahab couldn’t see it at the time, she was a part of God’s greater plan.
Many years later, someone very special would come from Rahab’s family. That person would be Jesus, the eventual Savior of the World. The Bible says that Rahab and her family were saved because of her faith. The good news is that we can be saved by our faith in Jesus too. And that is made possible because of Jesus’s birth, ministry, death, and eventual resurrection!
At first glance, today’s story looks like it might not connect with Advent or the story of Christmas. But in the center of Ruth and Boaz’s family is one of God’s promises.
Before marrying Boaz, Ruth was a widow. And in Ruth’s time, widows didn’t have much hope for a good life. But God had a plan for Ruth. And that plan involved marrying Boaz, having a son, and eventually providing a new future and family.
Believe it or not, Ruth and Boaz became the great-grandparents of someone named King David (who we’ll learn more about later). Even though Ruth might not have seen God’s plan, that didn’t mean that God wasn’t working the whole time. And the same is true in our own lives.
One of the most well-known figures throughout the whole Bible is King David. But David wasn’t always a king. In fact, for most of his life, David was an often overlooked shepherd boy. Until one day a prophet named Samuel visited David’s family looking for someone to anoint to be king.
David was hardly perfect. But God looked beyond what everyone else saw. God saw David’s character and heart. Eventually David became King over all of Israel. But David’s reign as king was only a glimpse of the kingdom that would eventually come through Jesus.
Read John 13:34; 1 John 4:7-12
God showed His love for humankind through the gift of His son. It’s good to show your love for others during the holiday season, too. One of the ways that people can show their love for each other is to send Christmas cards.
Have your children make cards for their family members and friends. Enjoy the time with your children as you make cards together. Explain that Jesus commands us to love one another, just as He loves us. And ask your children to think of other ways they can show their love.
Check out our Advent Family Devotionals for each week of the Advent season. Learn about the hope of Jesus’ birth and return.
For Christians, the Advent season reminds us not only of Jesus’ birth, but of His eternal presence and eventual second coming.
Jackson Greer is a Special Projects Manager for Focus on the Family. He lives in Colorado Springs with his wife, Clara. They love feeding birds, debating whether or not to get a cat, and reading William Carlos Williams’ poetry together. Also, he is a former high school English teacher and a defender of the Post Office.
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