Advent Meditations to Bring Hope and Peace This Season
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While we know Christmas as a time of celebration and love, many struggle during the holiday season. However, Advent meditations can help bring hope and peace to the hurting or simply deepen our appreciation for this meaningful time of year as Christians.
The Christmas season often comes with a rise in depression and other mental health issues. People can face financial stress with unrealistic consumer expectations. Those who are single or without family close by experience isolation and increased loneliness. For many, the holiday amplifies grief from lost loved ones or strained family relationships. While surrounded by parties and others making fun plans, those dealing with depression or isolation feel more disconnected, and their sadness makes it difficult to reach out for help.
But within the Christmas story, there’s a promise. God sent his son for the broken, the disenfranchised, the lonely. He seeks to save, to reconcile, to empower, and redeem. He offers his very presence as Immanuel, God with us. The biblical narrative around Christmas is designed to bring hope and peace.
Meditating on the Advent season leading up to Christmas can help us experience the hope and peace the Father provides in his Son, Jesus.
Some Advent Meditations to Reflect on This Season
Hope (Week 1): Reflect on Isaiah 9:2, where the promise of light breaking into darkness symbolizes the hope of Christ’s coming. Consider how hope strengthens faith in difficult times.
Peace (Week 2): Meditate on Isaiah 9:6, focusing on Jesus as the "Prince of Peace." Ask how you can bring God's peace to your life and others.
Joy (Week 3): Read Luke 2:10-11 and reflect on the joy of the shepherds at Jesus' birth. How can you cultivate joy amidst life’s challenges?
Love (Week 4): Consider John 3:16, and reflect on God's great love in sending Christ for our salvation. How can you share that love in your daily life?
These meditations can guide you in prayer and reflection as you prepare your heart for Christmas.
How Can Advent Meditations Help Prepare Our Hearts for Christmas?
Christmas celebrates Jesus’ incarnation—the moment when God became a human and dwelt among us (John 1:14). The holiday reminds us of how God fulfilled his promise to send a Savior who would redeem humanity from sin and bring peace between God and mankind. Advent leads up to Christmas and provides a way for believers to reflect on this truth and prepare our hearts for his arrival.
The word “advent” comes from the Latin adventus, meaning “coming” or “arrival.” Traditionally, the Advent season begins four Sundays before Christmas and includes anticipation and expectation, focusing on Christ’s birth in Bethlehem and his promised second coming in glory. Early Christians used this time to reflect on their need for a Savior and the hope in his return. Believers would fast, pray, and repent. The weeks focus on the hope, peace, joy, and love offered by God through Christ.
Today, Advent still contains this double focus—remembering Christ’s first coming and preparing for his return. Advent meditations can involve daily Scripture reading, prayer, and reflections about Jesus’ birth and hope for salvation. Many light a candle for each of the four weeks, ending with a fifth Christ candle.
Christian mediation plays a central role. Biblical meditation, however, differs from other religions. Other meditative practices involve emptying of self and focus on being open to any influences. Christian meditation, however, involves an intentional focus and contemplation of God’s Word and his character. It’s more than just thinking; it seeks God’s revelation through Scripture and from his Holy Spirit, listening to the voice of God. Psalm 119:15 says, “I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.” During Advent, these mediations help Jesus' followers slow down, get the focus off of self and onto the person of God and the true meaning of Christmas.
Meditating on Hope during Advent
Meditating during Advent can help believers experience hope by considering God’s faithfulness in fulfilling his promises and the sure expectation of Jesus’ return. Biblically, hope isn't simply wishful thinking. God’s hope contains a confident assurance in his promises. Hebrews says faith is “the assurance of things hoped for,” showing how Christian hope remains rooted in the certainty of God’s Word. Hope firmly expects God to do what he promised because of his loving and mighty character.
First, Christians meditate on how God fulfilled his promise in sending Jesus to earth as a baby. In Isaiah 9:6, the prophet foretold the coming of the Messiah. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah spoke and wrote this hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, but it reveals the Father’s eternal plan to save humanity through the Son. God didn’t forget his people before. He fulfilled his promise two thousand years ago. He hasn’t forgotten people today and will bring the good things he’s promised.
Second, believers also look forward with hope, trusting in the promises yet to be fulfilled. Jesus’ first coming was an act of grace to redeem the world, and in his second coming, he will victoriously finish that redemption and establish his Kingdom in full. All oppressions will cease. All tears will be wiped away. God will turn all things to good for those who love him and walk in his purposes (Romans 8:28). “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13) He is the “God of hope,” and he can fill people with his Spirit and provide more hope than any thought possible.
Meditating on Peace during Advent
One week of Advent centers around peace. The Bible uses the word shalom for a peace that comes from God’s wholeness and completeness. Scripturally, peace isn’t just the absence of conflict but a state of well-being and harmony with God, ourselves, and others. Believers can experience this shalom even during conflict. Shalom reflects God’s desire for humanity to live in right relationship with him and experience his fullness. During Advent, believers remember Christ is the source of peace.
Isaiah 9:6 proclaims Jesus as the “Prince of Peace,” a title revealing how Christ brings peace to the world. On the night of Jesus’ birth, a host of angels sang to shepherds: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:10-14) Jesus’ arrival as Messiah fulfills God’s promise to restore humanity’s broken relationship with him. Previously, humans lived as enemies of God, but through Christ, the Father offers peace and goodwill. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)
Peace with God brings us shalom in the present. In John 14:27, Jesus reassures his disciples the night before his death, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” Jesus promises this before he suffered horrific pain and rejection. But God’s peace transcends circumstances since it’s rooted in the Lord’s presence and power.
Through Advent meditations, Christians trust in God’s plan for the future. As God fulfilled his promises through Christ’s first coming, he will do the same with Jesus’ return and the final redemption. Philippians 4:7 expresses the peace Christians find in the divine relationship. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Advent meditation gives Jesus’ disciples the space to reflect on God’s character and promises, quieting hearts in shalom and giving confident expectation in the good God will do. For the broken, God will redeem. For the despondent, God will bring good. Advent focuses minds and souls upon God’s love and ability. This doesn’t dismiss current circumstances but reminds people that temporary situations can’t overcome God’s eternal plan.
What are Some Other Advent Themes to Meditate On?
Besides hope and peace, Advent meditations focus on joy and love, both of which reveal important aspects of the Gospel.
The third Advent candle usually represents joy. Joy and happiness are different. Happiness depends upon circumstances, which are temporary and easily manipulated. Joy finds satisfaction and excitement in the eternal, in the relationship with God. Joy becomes a constant gladness from knowing Christ, his love and salvation. Biblical joy comes from what God has done in the past, how he cares for people today, and for the future redemption. As the angel announced to the shepherds: “Fear not, for behold, I bring to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).
The fourth candle helps believers focus on God’s love. God becoming man in the person of Jesus is the ultimate demonstration of his love. The Father loved the world so abundantly, he gave his only Son so whoever would believe in him wouldn’t die but have eternal life (John 3:16). Advent guides Christians to meditate on God’s love for people, individually and collectively. Advent also calls us to reflect on loving others. Christ’s love shouldn’t end with the individual but be shared as he did. Jesus’ last command was to “love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34) People show God’s love through acts of kindness, service, and compassion during Christmas and beyond.
How Can Christians Create Space for Advent Meditations?
Since Christmas is often a busy time of year, we must intentionally set aside time and find practical ways to help us mediate through Advent.
Begin by designating a quiet place in your home, allowing for focused time with God. You can decorate for Christmas or include Advent candles. Choose a specific time each day, such as early morning or before bed, to read Scriptures related to Advent themes of hope, peace, joy, love, and the person of Christ. numerous books on Advent exist, from Bible studies to devotionals. Order one and follow through the lessons or prayers. Online ministries may also have plans or videos related to Advent. You can find a number of resources on BibleStudyTools.com or our sister sites, Crosswalk.com or Christianity.com.
Advent traditions with family can foster cherished memories and build connection as well. Families can set aside a weekly time, perhaps on Sunday evenings or lunch after a church service, to gather around an Advent calendar or candles. Each week, light a candle and read a related Scripture. Reflect together on the theme for the week. Again, books and resources exist for families and children to go through the Advent themes, complete with activities and prayers for children and families. A family Advent tradition invites children into the practice and teaches them about the real reason for Christmas.
Many churches also participate in Advent reflections and worship. This includes lighting Advent candles during Sunday services, reading Scriptures related to each week’s theme, such as hope or peace. Joining in these services helps you connect with the larger Body of Christ, the eternal family, in celebrating the truth of the season.
Along with community gatherings, the family or church community can corporately participate in charity and generosity, meeting the needs in the community through food banks, feeding the homeless, or other opportunities. Hebrews 10:24-25 encourages us to “stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together.” These group activities in generosity help us to live out our faith in a way that blesses others.
By creating intentional space for Advent meditations—individually, with family, and in the church—we can focus our hearts on what Christmas is all about: Jesus. These practices prepare us spiritually to celebrate the birth of Christ and his second coming with hope, peace, joy, and love.
Peace.
Further Reading
12 Advent Prayers to Reflect on Jesus
Advent Prayers for 2024 to Prepare Your Heart for Christmas
Advent Readings and Scriptures for Each Week of Advent
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