Rev’d Beth Glover’s Advent Thought and Prayers 2025 🙏
These thoughts are not to be read instead of your usual Bible reading if you do that. Just spend a moment with a cup of tea ☕️ or coffee each day and focus, amidst all of the pressure, on Jesus Christ and our response to his love for us in our lives. If you want, light a candle 🕯️ each day as you make your space with God as this Advent we journey into light.
Week Two
Monday December 8th
Advent has called us on a journey into light. We have started on that journey, committed to God and to seeking the truth that is within us. We have met people on our path and have seen their place in the Advent story and of their witness in our lives.
But all journeys have to have signposts of some sort. “What happens if I get lost”?; you may have asked yourself! Well, put yourself on the path towards the light again.
You are walking quite briskly today, firmly treading in Jesus’ footsteps, pretty confident, cards sent, presents bought, Christmas cakes and puddings made. Christmas under control? But you stop and ponder, ahead of you are crossroads…there are no directions or signposts. You look around. There is no one to ask. No one to speak to. Alone, or so you think. You sit down on the grass beside the path and wait.
It’s been a pretty busy road so far, someone will come soon and within half an hour someone does come, but they have no idea which way to go either. As you talk, you realise that maybe if there are no signposts, either way will do. The person you are talking to decides to turn back to get a map! Is that you?
Then you look up and see a flight of birds ahead of you…..well they look like birds at first until you hear them sing….then you realise. Angels, singing love songs in perfect harmony. No need to wonder any more…follow the angels!
THOUGHT: We journey into God in faith this Advent, but this should be true of our walk with Jesus anyway. When we come to a crossroads on our life journey, we should take stock, watch and pray, sit, wait awhile and perhaps talk to other people. But in the end it is only by faith that we know the way. Jesus will always show the way. Follow the heavenly signs, God will send them, but this Advent, follow the angels.
PRAYER. Father, when we come to a crossroads, help us to wait. Give us a trust and faith in you which will still us until you send your signs to us. In all things Lord , help us to remember that you are faithful and will never leave us or forsake us. Amen. PS. God, give me patience!
Tuesday December 9th
Matthew goes to a great deal of trouble in his Gospel to give us a full genealogy of Jesus. His family tree sometimes reads like a soap opera. There is no priestly lineage here, no royal background except that he was descended from David. There is a mixture though, of men and women, this is not just a male lineage. There are some pretty diverse women too, a prostitute, a woman in all probability raped and abused, a gentile woman, and a sexually manipulative woman. Who were they? Why are they together on your path at Advent, talking, touching, crying laughing and comforting each other?
To be part of Jesus’ lineage is a great surprise to them and utter joy. They tell you their stories:
- Tamar tells of being slighted by her father in law (Gen 38) and how she tricked him into having sex with her and bore a son as a result.
- Rahab tells you how she helped Joshua spy on Jericho so that he could conquer it later for the Israelites. (Joshua 2 and 6) She was a prostitute who hung a red ribbon from her window in warning.
- Ruth who was not even Jewish (and has her own book in the Bible) tells how she came from Moab with her Mother in Law after her husband died, to live with her in Israel. A Gentile, she courted (in a very odd manner) and married Boaz. She was David’s great grandmother.
- And Bathsheba, (2 Samuel 11 and 12 and 1 Kings 1) it is thought now by many people that David possibly raped Bathsheba and then decided to have her husband killed in battle so he could marry her. Their first son died.
You could stay and talk with them for ages, and you do!
THOUGHT: None of those women were ordinary women by Jewish standards. These four women were included because of the irregularity about the birth of each woman’s son. Mary’s birth of Jesus was also highly irregular. She was a virgin. It just goes to show, God uses everyone, male or female as long as they are willing to be part of His plan. He used women beautifully and remember, God is the son of a woman…think about it!
PRAYER: Lord, give us the willingness and the courage to always be part of your plan for us – not to detract from it, or to deflect from it, but to let your will be always done in our lives. Amen. PS. God, help me not to make conditions either!
Wednesday December 10th
A very good friend of mine returned from walking 500 miles to Compostella on a pilgrimage. He had a wonderful spiritual journey, travelling about 30 miles a day sleeping in some of the small ‘pensions’ littered on this well-worn pilgrimage road.
Each day 40 or 50 people start on the long pilgrimage and so mostly you travel with the same people and get to know them pretty well. It is traditionally believed that once there, all previous sins will be forgiven. However, I believe God will forgive all sins if we truly repent without the pilgrimage, but I would definitely do it for the experience!
It took Richard about 5 weeks altogether and he returned with a deeper knowledge of himself; of how it is to walk daily with a group of people, all with the same aim, worshipping the same God and very affirmed in his own ministry.
Our journey this Advent is a pilgrimage too and when we reach our Compostella at Christmas, we too will bow down and worship the Christ child. We will have walked together as a family of God in this parish and will each face God in his or her own way this Christmas.
Advent is a time of deep reflection. It should not be a time of being hard on ourselves, but of being able to be honest with God about ourselves. We need to be open and honest with each other too. We can never wear masks with God, he sees us, knows us, understands us and loves us.
THOUGHT: Do we know ourselves and each other as well as we should do on our pilgrimage, our journey into light? Sometimes it is easier to talk about ourselves than to listen to each other’s stories. Sometimes it is easier to chop in with your own thoughts and experiences. Sometimes we do not share with another because we fear what it may reveal about ourselves. To know each other we have to share and listen to each other. Our relationship with God will only deepen if we do that with him too! And it is only when we truly listen to each other that we know how to pray for each other along the way.
PRAYER: Father, help us to be aware of those people who we are walking with this advent. Give us grace to listen to their stories, their fears or burdens and then lift them to your throne. Amen PS. God, help us to realise that I not the most important person in my life!
Thursday 11th December
Would you travel at night? Probably not unless you had a good reason to. One of my greatest memories of walking at night years ago, is of walking through the night in the Solomon Islands (In Melanesia) to be at the priesting of a friend on a neighbouring island.
The service was at 7am as the heat was too great as the day went on and dawn is usually always at about 5.30am. There was just me and some Melanesian Brothers. Most of the time we walked silently along, keeping the Grand Silence. Sometimes we would just pray aloud worshipping as we walked. But as we neared the coast we could see the first grey light of day. Then as the sun rose and we knelt to say the first office.
I don’t think I have ever felt the power of God so deeply…it was the power of walking from darkness into light that has stayed with me and the knowledge that at the end of every dark period in our lives we surely walk toward the light that God always provides for us. As surely as day follows night, is our God faithful to his promises to us.
THOUGHT: Did you know that in Siberia at the time of the Czars the peasants used to put out food outside their houses for those who travelled in the night? These were the people who could never be seen. Those who had escaped from prison and HAD to travel by night. Think about that spiritually!
PRAYER: Help us to know Lord that you are always faithful to us, even when we are not so faithful to you. Forgive us if we ever cause dark moments in other people’s lives. Bathe them as well as us in your forgiving love. Amen PS. God, bring your order of love into the chaos of my darkness.
Friday 12th December
The wise men we are told, travelled both by night and day to reach the Christ child. They had seen by the formation of the stars in the sky that this was a very auspicious time. They were masters of their art, astrology and it was at night, when the stars came out that they could study their science. During the day they could only study their book, but on a clear night, they could see for themselves what was happening in the heavenlies.
I used to hate the nightime as a child. I was fearful every single night. Nightmares became a habit that has been very difficult to break. I wish I had known then how to bring my darkness into the light!
The wise men though, who will be with us on our journey later, had just set off. Laden with a caravan of people and food and clothing, not forgetting their gifts for the new king they believed they were to meet, they made the unknown journey to meet an unknown person for an unknown reason! They believed so powerfully in what they had seen with their own eyes and had interpreted it. They had convinced enough people that this was a valid journey and so they set out in faith. They would stop on the way and ask King Herod how to find this new king.
Our journey too is very much like that that of the Magi. We do not know who we will meet, or what our journey will entail, but we travel with each other and with God in faith. The wise men were richly blessed for their faith. We too will be blessed by God at every stage in our journey as long as we truly believe in it!
THOUGHT: The light at the end of the tunnel was the Christ child for the Magi. The light at the end of the tunnel always brings with it a sense of relief and hope for a new period in our lives too. Advent reminds us, as Lent does, that Christmas and Easter bring with them great hope and joy. We sometimes need the darker times to appreciate the brighter ones with more energy and insight, understanding and joy!
PRAYER: Father, even in the dark moments of our lives, help us to remember that if we just trust you, you will bring us out into your light and that light, like the sun, will give warmth and peace. Amen. PS. God, could I just travel with nice people?
Saturday 13th December
Busy? Even if you are not, you will be able to sense the busyness all around you. Just think, all that time, money and energy that is being put into just one day!
Looking at it from God’s point of view may be rather different. He is possibly thinking that only if we could spend a fraction of the time and the energy that we spend ‘doing’ Christmas on him; being with him, talking with him, and praying with him instead of preparing to celebrate him, he would feel so blessed just by our company and love!
Mary must have spent a long time in her pregnancy praying, meditating, possibly reading the Scriptures to see what the old prophecies said about the child she was to give birth to. Maybe she talked through with Joseph about all the future implications.
There is no doubt though, that as Mary prepared for the coming of her child, she prepared herself too spiritually. This is just what we should be doing as we prepare for Christmas. Advent calls us to prepare spiritually too.
On our journey, imagine that you sit down now beside the road to rest. You get out a sketch pad and begin to draw what Christmas means to you. Christmas trees, presents, a turkey, warm fires, the nativity scene and a stable.
How will you approach the stable this year? Our traditions and well known routine might make it so that we just stroll into the stable. Christmas once again.
A recent book I have read says that there ought to be a sign hanging above the stable which says; ‘Dynamite, handle with care at your own risk!’ The baby we will find in a feeding trough in a stable, is a life changing, dynamic being. Just lying there, innocently kicking his legs, reliant on a woman for nourishment and her husband for protection has within him divinity, power, majesty and love!
THOUGHT: As we as a church prepare to sing carols, to have crib services and Christingles, God would just love to have us all to himself. Could we not just do that for a minute each day till Christmas? Just to sit for a moment, look at a cross, light a candle or just shut your eyes and imagine cradling Jesus as a baby in your arms. Holding that divinity, power, majesty and love within our arms. Just for a moment, give God your lives.
PRAYER: Holy Father, we cannot understand all the mystery that surrounds Christmas. But as we meditate on your love for us that caused you to send us your son, we remember the words of the carol; ‘What can I give him, poor as I am? Yet what can I give him? give him my heart’. It is yours Lord, but take also my mind, my soul and my strength. Amen PS. God, whatever I hold back, let me remember it is yours anyway!