Advent: December 13, 2024

Isaiah 26:8-9 (ESV) 8 In the path of your judgments, O LORD, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. 9 My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you.

In the Garden of Eden, our parents signed the death warrant for our desires. The viral curse of sin infected every part of creation.

We are all keenly aware that things don’t quite work like they were designed by God to work, and I know this because I don’t desire the right things all the time.

We were created to enjoy God’s presence, live in daily fellowship with God, and enjoy him as he delights in us.

The curse of sin caused Adam and Eve to hide from God in terror at his presence. That’s not how it was supposed to work. But that is what sin did. Sin killed the relationship and the yearning for God’s presence.

Ever since Eden, humans have not delighted in God, and in fact, have been in active rebellion against him, running from him, and finding joy in things that will kill us.

But God being rich in mercy, set the pattern in the Garden for how he would fix the problem of sin and its destruction of what we desire. He didn’t let Adam and Eve “hide”, as if they could hide effectively from God. He pursued them, revealed the sin, covered their shame, and sent them out on mission with the awful curse of sin to weigh them down, and he also sent them with the promise that he would one day send One who would crush the curse of sin and restore all things to their right state.

In Advent, we remember that Jesus has come, and in coming he started setting all things back to their right state. Seeking and saving the lost is one of the ways Jesus sets things back to their right state. His saving is accomplished through his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. In these glorious things, Jesus restores a living heart to humans who come to him in faith, and that new and living heart will want to know God and yearn for him.

Isaiah’s words remind us of that yearning and desire that we were wired to have for God.

Sin has caused us to be divided in our being, and if we are followers of Jesus, we feel that division in hard ways. We want God, and yet we don’t want God. We yearn for God’s presence and will flee from obeying him.

What we have now in Christ’s active restoration is the power and ability to fight for more yearning for God and more desire to know God. That is a precious gift.

This Advent season, remember Jesus has come.

This Advent season, remember that Jesus has come to save us and give us a new set of desires to yearn for him and delight in his presence.

This Advent season, fight against all desires that pull you away from delight in God. If it leaves you feeling empty, it’s not Jesus. Jesus satisfies the human who believes and follows him in faith. Don’t do empty things. Do things that feed a yearning for the Lord Jesus.

Isaiah 26:3-4 (ESV) 3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. 4 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

This is what those who yearn for the Lord get. We get perfect peace as we trust in the Lord because he is an unshakable foundation.