The Captivating Woman

Designed with purpose.

Advent – Day 16

Lo! He Comes! Let All Adore Him
Words: Thomas Kelly

Lo! He comes! let all adore Him!
‘Tis the God of grace and truth!
Go! prepare the way before Him,
Make the rugged places smooth!
Lo! he comes, the mighty Lord!
Great His work, and His reward.

Let the valleys all be raised;
Go, make the crooked straight;
Let the mountains be abased;
Let all nature change its state;
Through the desert mark a road,
Make a highway for our God.

Through the desert God is going,
Through the desert waste and wild,
Where no goodly plant is growing,
Where no verdure ever smiled;
But the desert shall be glad,
And with venture soon be clad.

Where the thorn and brief flourished,
Trees shall there be seen to grow,
Planted by the Lord and nourished,
Stately, fair, and fruitful too;
They shall rise on every side,
They shall spread their branches wide.

From the hills and lofty mountains
Rivers shall be seen to flow,
There the Lord will open fountains,
Thence supply the plains below;
As He passes, every land
Shall confess His powerful hand.

I had never heard this hymn before sitting down to write this post. I debated on breaking down the definition of adore and lo, trying to change the way we read them in hymns. I searched the lines for something deep and revolutionary, trying to find something that would be brand new information. I can’t be faulted for missing an opportunity to try and reinvent the wheel – but as Jesus often does, what struck me about this hymn was not new information.

The second stanza says:

“Let the valleys all be raised; Go, make the crooked straight; Let the mountains be abased; Let all nature change its state;”

Go, make the crooked straight…let all nature change its state. What struck me most about this hymn is the reminder, yet again, that Jesus changes everything. The crooked, bent and broken parts of us are made new. All of nature is changed, because the Lord comes.

Nothing remains unaffected. Not even the driest, most barren of places can stay the way that it was when Jesus passes through.

“Through the desert God is going, through the desert waste and wild, where no goodly plant is growing, where no verdure ever smiled; but the desert shall be glad, and with venture soon be clad.”

We have hope because He came.

Death is not the end because He came.

We have victory because He came.

Our circumstances do not have the final say, because He came.

We are adopted into the kingdom of God because He came.

We can persevere because He came.

We are beautiful, worthy and have a purpose and value that cannot be refuted because He came.

Nothing remains hopeless, nothing remains unaffected, because He came.

Let these last few weeks of advent be refreshing, blessed and healing as you sit in the truth that Jesus changes everything.

Credit: Photo by Sarah Simon // Instagram: @themintgardener

Advent – Day 15

We have just finished week 2 of Advent.

What has God been stirring up in your heart? What has He been revealing? Do you feel like there has been distraction upon distraction? Though this Christmas season is a special time of the year, have you felt like you might be missing out on what God wants to say to you?

I have a friend of mine who goes on “retreat”. She drives away from the city to Santa Cruz beach. She’ll stop at her favorite breakfast spot to fuel up before she heads to beach. Once she is there, she turns off her phone and opens up her bible to read and prayer. Though she only an hour and a half away from home, she knows she has to go on retreat to get away from distractions to focus on the Lord.

I love this idea because I know in my life I need to go on retreat. I get so distracted by my own house because I can’t even focus.

You might be thinking, “Sarah, I have kids. I can’t go away.” or “Sarah, I can’t afford driving away to step away from distractions.” I understand, completely.

Think of a place in your house or backyard where it can become your retreating place. My place is my bathroom. I know, it’s weird. I find no distractions in there. It has become a secret place because I can lock the door.

I love what Bob Sorge says about time spent with God in a secret place.

“Everything in the kingdom depends upon whether or not we hear the word of God. I will endure months of silence if He will but speak one creative word from His mouth to my spirit. Our devotional life with God is more like the planting of a garden. When we arise from sowing into the secret place, we will not usually be able to point to immediate results or benefits. What we sow today will require an entire season of growth before the results are manifest. The wisest thing you’ll ever do in this life is to draw close to God and to seek Him with all your heart. I never consider time invested in the secret place to be wasteful; and even if it is, I gladly waste it upon my Lord! When you neglect the secret place, He’s not disappointed in you, He’s disappointed for you. One day of exhilaration in the Holy Spirit is worth a thousand days of struggle! The greatest things in life—those things that carry eternal value—always come at the steepest price. The closer you get to God, the more you realize He’s in no hurry. No one can mentor you into an abiding relationship with Christ. We all have to find our own way to abiding in Christ. When all is said and done, we must shut the door, get into the secret place with God, and discover what an abiding relationship with Christ will look like for ourselves.”

Read this line again:
“I never consider time invested in the secret place to be wasteful; and even if it is, I gladly waste it upon my Lord!”

Going into these secret places is powerful. Even if we spend months in silence to hear just one word from Him, we should long for that. There is spiritual growth that comes with waiting.

Let’s pray.

Prayer One
O God, early in the morning I cry to you.
Help me to pray
And to concentrate my thoughts on you:
I cannot do this alone.

In me there is darkness,
But with you there is light;
I am lonely, but you do not leave me;
I am feeble in heart, but with you there is help;
I am restless, but with you there is peace.
In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience;

I do not understand your ways,
But you know the way for me…
Restore me to liberty,
And enable me to live now
That I may answer before you and before me.

Lord, whatever this day may bring,
Your name be praised.

Prayer Two
Lord,
We long for You. May we enter into Your courts with hands opened to receive whatever You may give. Prepare our hearts to wait. Press into our hearts that there is growth when we wait. Lord, help to become more like You. Slough off anything that doesn’t look like You. Help us to understand that You are not in a hurry. Help us to sit in silence with You. Lord, we want to draw close to You. Draw close to us. Restore us. Minister to us. Shape us. May we understand that being in Your presence we will experience the fullness of Your joy. 
In Your Name, Amen.

Credit: First prayer by Dietrich Bonhoeffer // Photo by Sarah Simon; Instagram: @themintgardener

Advent – Day 14

There is a story in Luke 1 about Mary going to visit her cousin Elizabeth shortly after she is told by the angel Gabriel that she will give birth to Jesus. Elizabeth’s husband had been visited by this same angel many months before this, and he was told that his wife would conceive a son named John, who would “be great in the sight of the Lord” (Luke 1:13-17 NIV).

Elizabeth and her husband were very old, and they had never been able to have children before.  Upon Mary’s arrival at Elizabeth’s home, the Bible says:

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her” (Luke 1:41-45).

After this Mary responded, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.” (v. 46-48).

This passage speaks a couple of things to me: there is great joy to be found in Jesus, and we are blessed when believe that He is good. 

We all know that worrying and doubting is certainly not a joyous condition. I’m learning that when we choose to focus on God’s faithfulness and believe that He is the loving God He says is, joy is a natural result. Mary and Elizabeth knew this first hand. Their reactions to God promising to do something in their lives were not doubt and fear, but praise and expectation.

I love that the first thing the angel said to Mary when he appeared to her was, “Greetings, you who are highly favored!” (Luke 1:28) and that the last thing he said was, “For no word from God will ever fail” (v.38).

We, too, are highly favored and loved dearly as daughters of God, and we can trust Him when He says “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28 NIV). He truly means it when He says He has “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV). We can trust God when we remember that He loves us beyond what we could ever understand and have faith that because He loves us so much, He wants to take care of us and to demonstrate His perfectly faithful character.

As we focus on the Lord this advent season and every day, I pray that He will reveal the joy that He offers us through faith in His goodness and His love for us. When we acknowledge that God is a good God who promises to lovingly take care of us, we are able to view things more light-heartedly, and our lives are blessed with joy.

“For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

the Lord bestows favor and honor;

no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.” 

(Psalm 84:11-12 NIV)

Lo! He Comes, An Infant Stranger
Words by: Richard Mant

Lo! he comes, an infant stranger, of a lowly mother born,
Swathed and cradled in a manger, of his pristine glory shorn!
Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! Praise the incarnate Word of God!

Lo! he comes, by man unfriended, fain with stable-beast to rest;
Shepherds, who their night-fold tended, hailed alone the new-born guest.
Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! Praise ye Jesse’s tender rod!

Lo! he comes; but who the weakness of his coming may declare,
When, with more than human meekness, more than human woes he bare?
Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! Praise him, emptied of his might!

Lo! he comes, around him pouring all the armies of the sky;
Cherub-, seraph-host, adoring, swell his state and loudly cry:
Hallelujah! hallelujah! hallelujah! Praise ye him, the living Light!

Credit: Photo by Rachel K Duncan // http://www.rachelkduncan.com  // Instagram: @rachelkduncan

Advent – Day 13

God is beautiful in every single way.

I’ve heard this all my life and I can remember being a small child singing in the children’s choir about how awesome God is. The God I sang about then may be the same God I worship now, but today I have a greater understanding of just how beautiful and magnificent He is.

He is perfect and yet in all His power, He is kind, gracious, and loving towards us. When I think of the goodness of who God is, it only makes me fall for Him a little bit more. While I may be in a season where I desperately long for more of Him, I know that my heart has not always been after God. See, the Lord our God knows every single thing about us, but yet, we are protected and favored. Despite our daily sins and inability to meet the mark of perfection, He doesn’t leave us. He stays near us. He lives within us.

Even when we are lost, it is only by His grace that we are able to find ourselves again.

It is only throughout Him that we can reach our full potential. Only His power is strong enough to turn a mistake into a testimony, a broken past to a ministry, and imperfection into a perfect mirror of redemption. He is just good, no question about it.

As we near the time of the year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, let us remember all that God has done. It is the perfect opportunity to sit and reflect on where we would be without Him. We ought to acknowledge and thank Him for every single display of His love and mercy we have experienced. While we may exchange gifts, let us not get so caught up in material things, but rather ensure that we truly celebrate the true gift of the season, the gift of salvation that Jesus gave us.

I believe that as our faith grows, God wants our perspective on who He is to evolve as well. It is my hope that as women of God, our relationship with our Savior would not become stagnant but always going to new heights. While distractions won’t ever be far away, let our desire to know Him overshadow our tendency to run from Him.

That little girl who sang in the choir didn’t yet grasp the wonders of God and I know with all my heart that I have yet to truly experience all of who God is. And so with each day, with each time we sit in His presence, and with each opportunity He reveals something new to us, let’s soak it all in. Let us learn to trust that He will always be our helper and redeemer.

It is is my hope that we wouldn’t forget how good He is when life tells us to believe otherwise. May we always hold on to the fact that God is good and perfect in all His ways for He is the King of Glory Himself.

Lift Up Your Heads, Ye Mighty Gates
Words by: Georg Weissel

Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates!
Behold, the King of Glory waits;
The King of kings is drawing near,
The Savior of the world is here.
Life and salvation He doth bring,
Wherefore rejoice and gladly sing:
We praise Thee, Father, now,
Creator, wise art Thou!

A Helper just He comes to thee,
His chariot is humility,1
His kingly crown is holiness,
His scepter, pity in distress,
The end of all our woe He brings;
Wherefore the earth is glad and sings:
We praise Thee, Savior, now,
Mighty in deed art Thou!

O blest the land, the city blest,
Where Christ the Ruler is confessed!
O happy hearts and happy homes
To whom this King in triumph comes!
The cloudless Sun of joy He is,
Who bringeth pure delight and bliss.
We praise Thee, Spirit, now,
Our Comforter art Thou!2

Fling wide the portals of your heart;
Make it a temple set apart
From earthly use for Heaven’s employ,
Adorned with prayer and love and joy.
So shall your Sovereign enter in
And new and nobler life begin.
To Thee, O God, be praise
For word and deed and grace!

Redeemer, come! I open wide
My heart to Thee; here, Lord, abide!
Let me Thy inner presence feel,
Thy grace and love in me reveal;
Thy Holy Spirit guide us on
Until our glorious goal is won!
Eternal praise and fame
We offer to Thy name!

Credit: Photo by Sarah Simon // Instagram: @themintgardener

Advent – Day 12

One of the major themes of Advent is preparing for the celebration of the birth of Christ. Isaiah 40:3 paints a beautiful picture of this preparation when Isaiah prophesies about “A voice of one crying out: Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.”  In the New Testament, John the Baptists fulfills that prophecy.  This is what John Coffin is referring to in his Advent hymn “On Jordan’s bank, the Baptist’s Cry.”

On Jordan’s bank, the Baptist’s cry
Announces that the Lord is nigh;
Awake, and hearken, for he brings
Glad tidings of the King of kings!

Then cleansed be every breast from sin;
Make straight the way for God within;
Prepare we in our hearts a home
Where such a mighty Guest may come.

For Thou art our Salvation, Lord,
Our Refuge, and our great Reward.
Without Thy grace we waste away,
Like flowers that wither and decay.

To heal the sick stretch out Thine hand,
And bid the fallen sinner stand;
Shine forth, and let Thy light restore
Earth’s own true lovliness once more.

Stretch forth thine hand, to heal our sore,
And make us rise to fall no more;
Once more upon thy people shine,
And fill the world with love divine.

All praise, eternal Son, to Thee
Whose advent sets Thy people free,
Whom, with the Father, we adore,
And Holy Ghost, forevermore

Matthew 3:1-6

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!” For he is the one spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, who said:

A voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

Prepare the way for the Lord;

make His paths straight.

John himself had a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then people from Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the vicinity of the Jordan were flocking to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.

This passage of Scripture shows us several important facts about John the Baptist.  First, John was a man of simple means.  Second, John was on a mission to proclaim the Gospel.  Third, John was available for the people in the area to come to him.  We can adapt these findings into three simple phrases to keep in mind during Advent and prepare for celebrating Christmas:

No distractions.

Focus on what really matters.

Be present.

Looking inward to prepare our hearts to celebrate the arrival of Jesus, it’s vital that the busyness and consumerism of the season not distract us.  How can we “make straight the way for God within” and prepare our hearts, as the hymn says, when we get so caught up in something like Christmas shopping, for instance, that we forget the reason why we’re exchanging gifts in the first place?

Turing our attention outward, we can continue to prepare our hearts for Christmas Day by simply focusing on what really matters.  John, the “voice crying out it the wilderness” (Matthew 3:3), speaking with such urgency, illustrates that telling others about Christ is what matters most.  Thankfully, the Christmas season affords us special opportunities to share the love of Christ because evidence of His coming is all around us in the decorations, giving, and music.  From simply saying “Merry Christmas” to being generous with our time and our money, there are countless ways to share our faith in our words and actions.

Proper focus goes hand-in-hand with being present during this season.  Just as John was present and available for the people of Judea to come to him to hear the gospel and confess their sins (Matthew 3:5-6), we should be aware of the people around us and make time for them.  Christmastime is often when people are the most aware that their lives aren’t what they should be because they realize they don’t have what the season is supposed to be about – love, joy, and peace.  With Christmas just two weeks away, let’s not be in such a rush that we don’t take time be and give that love, joy, and peace that people need.

All too often, the details of our Christmas festivities, which usually start out with the best intentions, eclipse the real reason for our celebration.  If you’re like me and you look forward all year long to the perfect Christmas and something small goes wrong, it’s very easy to let negativity take over.  For example, the Christmas cookies might get burnt moments before guests arrive.  Someone’s long-searched-for gift might get lost in the mail.  Family members might argue.  Flights might get delayed…  The list goes on.

Yet none of these things are out of God’s control, nor do they deserve to be the center of our attention.  All of these “bad” circumstances are opportunities for funny memories, second chances, drawing closer, and new possibilities.  John the Baptist (who wore animal skin and foraged for food!) didn’t let any kind of personal preference, comfort, or consumerism overtake the matter at hand – proclaiming Christ – and neither should we.

If you are feeling overwhelmed by and unprepared for Christmas, embrace the Advent season, reread Coffin’s hymn, and turn these lyrics into a prayer for godly perspective, focus, and mission:

Make straight the way for God within;

Prepare we in our hearts a home

Where such a mighty Guest may come.

Credit: Calligraphy by Stephanie Ko // http://simplystephko.com // Instagram: @simplysteph