Go in Peace: Hope for AdventSample

Welcome to the final day of our “Go in Peace” Advent reading plan. Since we’ve been going in order through scripture, that means we get the least hearty “Go in peace” last.

In this one, James uses the phrase as an example of empty rhetoric, of wishing well to someone in need without offering any material support to meet their need:

“If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?”

James’ point in using this example is not necessarily to chastise those who do nothing to meet the needs they see in their fellow man (though it does hit close to the bone in that area); James is getting at a bigger point: our faith needs to have action as part of it, otherwise it’s just words, and words are dead.

What does this have to do with hope?

Anxiety and despair sit on the sidelines and fret. They look down the road, see a situation, and let the doom set in.

Hope takes action. Hope gets kindled and strengthened when we get involved, even in the smallest ways.

God will one day make everything right. God will restore creation and will welcome us into his arms of safety and comfort.

That day isn’t here yet, but we can make it feel a little more like that day when we put our faith in action. When we give to that cause we feel strongly about. When we greet our neighbors and provide their needs. When we volunteer our time and energy in some way that makes our streets, our neighborhoods, our cities, our states, our world feel a little more like the one God is creating.

Advent is a time of waiting, but it doesn’t have to be a time of idleness. Take action. Do something. Make the world better. Build up your hope, one action at a time.

Go in peace.

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This scripture reading plan has been brought to you by Hope is Alive Ministries, where we exist to radically change the lives of drug addicts, alcoholics, and those who love them. If you or someone you love is dealing with addiction, please find resources on our website, HopeIsAlive.net.