
An Advent Prayer
“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God! I will praise Him again—
my Savior and my God!” ~ Psalm 43:5, NLT
“We put our hope in the Lord.
He is our help and our shield.
In Him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in His holy name.
Let Your unfailing love surround us, Lord,
for our hope is in You alone.” ~ Psalm 33:20-22, NLT
My Hope is In You Lord
Lord, I appreciate Your faithfulness so much. You are my sure place — I know I can depend on Your love. My hope is in You Lord … truly. And yet my heart hurts because of the sorrow I see around me.

You are the long-awaited Messiah. You came into the darkness of the world to bring light and love and grace.
I have confident expectation — hope — that You will come into my broken places too. I long for You to steady the shaking of this world, and yet I believe, this shaking is part of Your plan. But it’s not pleasant. It’s actually frightening at times as I watch evil unleashed and I witness the suffering and sorrow of others.
You have taught me to say, “My hope is in You Lord,” not in my circumstances, not in people … not in my own abilities.
My hope is in You.
I ask You to break through the darkness, and come into my difficult places and those of others that I love.
Show Yourself strong, Lord. Let faith arise and scatter our enemies. Heal the brokenhearted. Restore the lost. Pour out Your peace to steady the hearts of Your children.
Fill us to overflowing with hope that cannot be overcome by difficulty. Dry the tears of Your people, draw near with Your reassurance and comfort.
Jesus, Messiah … My Hope
Bless You, Lord. I give You praise for Your faithfulness, for Your tender watch-care. Your love astounds me.
In the Name of Jesus I pray,
Amen
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Please don’t carry your burdens alone. I would be honored to pray for you. You may contact me directly at nan@nanjones.com
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Thank you so much for stopping by. I would love for you to share what’s on your heart in the comments below. Scroll a little farther down and you’ll see where you can leave your comments. Together, we can find the nearness of God in our darkest moments.
Sweet blessings to you,

Jesus is indeed our hope!
Amen! And what a wonderful, faithful hope He is. His love never fails.
My life verse is Psalm 39:7 My hope is in Thee. This spoke to my heart, Nan. Thank you.
Praise His Name! I’m so thankful it ministered to your heart.
“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God! I will praise Him again—
my Savior and my God!” ~ Psalm 43:5, NLT
This verse, the first part anyway is how I feel right now. But I don’t need God to answer those two questions as I already know the answer to both of them.
“Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? Because I am weary of the church and society assuming everyone has family, is married, has kids, has grandkids, grew up with traditions and my list can go on and on but I will stop there.
This year i am 10 times more socially involved online in FB groups, writers’ groups, online Bible studies and lots of Zooms. Therefore, this year I have been asked all those sensitive questions that I do not have answers for or have in my life and therefore I end up feeling like a total outsider by the end of the events or post requesting interaction by answering the question etc.
This Christmas season I am having to work extra hard on the second part of the verse and not be a debbiedowner this season. My hope is in God, and I do praise Him but boy that first part being so present right now makes the hope and praise so much harder.