December 8, 2017 Advent Devotional - Jeremiah 33:14-16

This week I received a tag on Facebook to post seven photos in black and white of your everyday life. The request asked that you include no explanations and no people. I thought about this request for a bit, and then decided to add another line to the task. “With the holiday season fast approaching, I hope to use this challenge to slow down, and enjoy all of God’s beauty that surrounds me.”
 
During Advent, many of us find it harder and harder to slow down and just breathe.  We all have at least one “to do list a mile long,” that we feel we have to have completed by the holidays. In anticipation for all of the “hustle and bustle, “we find ourselves running from one event or experience to the next, without even slowing down to catch our breath.
 
Each year, I say, “next year, things will be different.”
 
This year, I am finally choosing to make things different. With this challenge, I am trying to stop and see God’s beauty around me, even if it means taking a picture. I am going to try and use this time to slow down, catch my breath, and let God guide me on his path; the special path HE created just for me.
 
This Advent, I challenge you, not so much to take seven pictures, but to stop, listen, slow down, and “enjoy all of God’s beauty that surrounds us,” as you count down to His special day.
 
Romans 12:2 says “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
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Daily Reading:  Jeremiah 33:14-16

14 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’

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