Intro

This year, we want to offer you a fresh way to walk through Advent—by engaging Scripture together. We’ve created four simple plans, each one centered on a different passage that reflects the four themes of Advent: hope, peace, joy, love. Each plan lasts four days, giving you space to linger slowly with God in His Word. You can move through all four plans over the season, or simply choose the one or two that meet you where you are right now. Accompanying each plan is a word-for-word Scripture song written by a Verses artist as a melodic anchor that you can use to memorize and meditate on the passage and engage more deeply in the season.

Advent is a word that means “arrival” or “coming.” It’s the very first season of the Christian year, beginning four weeks before Christmas. While Advent looks back and celebrates when Jesus first came as a baby, Advent is also about looking forward - waiting and preparing for when He will come again as King. Think about it: when was the last time you stopped and really thought about Jesus’ return and its practical implications for life right now? Advent gives us space to do just that. It’s a season the Church has set aside to help us practice longing - longing for His return, His hope, His peace, His joy, and His love.

As we journey through these weeks together, our prayer is simple. We are asking God to grow in us hearts that long for Jesus; that as we remember His first coming and look ahead to His return, we’d be marked by His hope, peace, joy, and love. Each week, we’ll focus on one of these themes. You’ll have daily reflections and practices that invite you to slow down, listen, and let God’s Word shape your heart this Advent season. Here’s the simple format you’ll follow:

Day 1 - Read the verse.
Day 2 - Write the verse.
Day 3 - Repeat the verse.
Day 4 - Pray the verse.

It’s common for us to move on from verses quickly, but we’re hoping that lingering on one passage for each theme of Advent will be a welcome opportunity to slow down with the Bible; to let it sink in; to allow it to settle deeper in our hearts. In addition to the particular discipline of the day, you’re invited to do a couple of other things:

1. Light the Advent candle. One tradition we love for the season of Advent is to light one candle per week of Advent, working your way up to four and then lighting a fifth Christ candle on Christmas Day. We remember that in our present darkness and waiting, Jesus is ultimately the light of the world! Since hope is week 1, it would just be one Advent candle.
2. Listen to and/or sing the Verses song. This will help you both memorize it and meditate on it! If you want a playlist with more songs on the Advent theme of the week, head to our app or to our Spotify playlist that has an assortment of more verses that focus on that theme.

Day 1: Read It

Lamentations 3:21–23
[21] But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
[22] The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
[23] they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

What do you do in times of trouble? When things feel upside down, what gives you hope? The prophet Jeremiah found himself in a dire situation: Jerusalem had been utterly destroyed by Babylon. It couldn’t get much worse: God’s people were taken away into captivity, the promises of God seemed about as far off as they could be, and the temple was a pile of rubble. In the preceding verses of Lamentations 3:1-20, the prophet was recounting with tremendous honesty how bad things were. He didn’t hold back from expressing his confusion and pain, which is precisely why the whole book is called Lamentations (plural). However, Jeremiah’s lament in verses 1-20 is interrupted by Jeremiah’s remembrance in verse 21. In the places of his deepest grief, he intentionally recalls God’s steadfast love that never ceases; he reminds himself that though many things in his life were dead or gone, God’s mercies never come to an end. Though life might fall apart all around him, God’s love and mercies were something sturdy he could hold on to every day and every moment and that reality gave him hope.

Is this not what Advent does as well? It meets us in the dark, but instead of allowing us to stay there, it infuses our lament with hope. It doesn’t immediately solve all the problems. Instead, it acknowledges the real pain we’re experiencing, but also points us to the realities of God that are available to us. So available are they, that they are new every morning! God never tires of giving us mercy again and again and again. As sure as we know the sun will rise anew every day, so we know His mercies will rise for us every morning. We can bank on God being a God of mercy and love, and therefore we have hope.

Note that hope wasn’t automatic for the weeping prophet. There was a discipline for him to engage in: “But this I call to mind…” It’s easy in tough times to call to mind the darkness; it’s far easier to rehearse the pain. What’s the “this” that Jeremiah called to mind? He chose to rehearse God’s faithfulness in times where God seemed unfaithful! He was holding the truths of God’s persistent and tenacious love alongside God’s relentless and daily mercies. This first week of Advent that remembers hope remembers that His faithfulness will be seen not only in His first coming, but also in His second coming. He will complete the work He started in us as He comes back for His people!

What are you placing your hope in this season of Advent? Remember that Advent hope isn’t akin to us saying, “I hope things get better.” Biblical hope is when we actively plant our feet and faith on the truths God has told us about Himself, and those things carry us! It’s calling to mind specific truths about God that we need in our sorrow. It’s putting our hope in Jesus and the fact that He told us that He will right every wrong and wipe away every tear from our eyes and bring healing to the nations… So great is His faithfulness toward us that He will follow through on His promise to come again, bringing His kingdom in all its fullness, and that’s the hope we hold high in Advent!

Today your assignment around this passage is simple: Read it. If you’re able to read it out loud, by all means do! Don’t just read it once; try reading it a few times over. Notice the cadence and flow of the passage. Linger on words and phrases. Don’t forget there’s a simple power in you speaking the Bible out loud. As you do, note what’s standing out. Look for the “shimmering words.” What does God seem to be highlighting?

Remember to light your Advent candle and sing along with the song. On every day of the plan, we included a lyric video below as well as an audio file!