(Our staff team meets for devotions and prayer each morning from Monday-Thursday, and this week I'm leading those devotions. I'm reflecting on some of the themes of Advent, and I thought I would share those reflections here. This is the final post in the series.)

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40:1-5

When the angels appear to the shepherds in Luke's account of the birth of Jesus, they announce that peace has come to those on whom God's favour rests (Luke 2:14). We cannot reflect on this season without thinking about the peace that comes through Jesus.

For the people of Israel, the promise of peace was a promise they deeply longed for. During their time in exile, scattered among the nations, they longed for the peace that would come from God when he sent the Messiah to redeem them. As Isaiah proclaimed, the promise of God was that through this Messiah, they would be comforted. These words from Isaiah called them to look forward to the peace they would have through the Messiah, who would pay for their sin and bless them.

As God's people, this peace extends to us as well. We too can take comfort in these words of Isaiah, that through Christ, our sin has been atoned for. It is in this season, of course, that we remember and celebrate the time when God sent his Son to earth for us so that he might bring his Kingdom and inaugurate the next part of redemptive history. He would offer himself as a sacrifice to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and finish the work that guarantees the redemption of all of creation.

But the peace we have through Jesus is not just about the forgiveness of our sins. We also have peace because Jesus promises that he will do everything to protect and preserve his people until he comes again. In this life we will face many obstacles and trials that will try to drive us off course. There are all kinds of things that will tempt us to keep from clinging to Jesus and the salvation he brings. People and possessions and ideas will be competing for our worship, wanting to keep us from serving and worshipping Jesus Christ alone.

Isaiah’s imagery of valleys and mountains and rough ground is a good picture of this difficult journey that is the Christian life. Yet, we have peace because, just as the way is made straight for the Lord, so he promises to raise up every valley, to make low every mountain and hill, to make the rough ground level, and the rugged places a plain (Is. 40:4). The road of faith is one we do not walk alone; instead, the one who leads us by his Spirit ensures that we will finish the journey and enter into the fullness of life in his Kingdom when he comes again.

Paul writes in Philippians 1:6 that we can have confidence "that he who began a good work in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." He is our peace. And so we place all our hope in trust in Christ, and surrender ourselves to him, fully dependent on him for our salvation. And as we wait for that final day when he returns and when the glory of the Lord will be revealed, we take comfort in knowing that he will preserve us until that day.