ADVENTure: The Loud, Noisy, Roaring, Life Changing, Not So Silent NightShembull

The Adventure:

Throughout this devotional, we will look at a famous verse that a lot of people look at during the Christmas season. It talks about who Jesus is. Now here is the crazy part: these words were spoken close to 400 years BEFORE Jesus was born. Do you think someone could describe you 400 years before you were born? I don’t think so. But this comes from a prophet named Isaiah. A prophet is someone who speaks the words God directly gives them. The amazing thing about God is that He knows everything. He knows everything that happened in 1623 and everything that will happen in 2433. And God didn’t want to just give random facts: He wanted to give the most important news to His prophets, who Jesus is.

So what does it mean that Jesus is a Wonderful Adviser? Well, let me ask you, who do you go to for advice? When you have to choose between two things, who do you talk to for help? Who is a person in your life who is wise and is there for you? Who is someone you want to grow up to be, or whose life you want? The Bible is saying here that Jesus is the greatest person to go to for advice, the greatest person to follow, and someone whose life we want to have. Now to be clear Jesus is not just a good teacher. Jesus is a good teacher but He is also the Lord of our lives.

Isaiah writes here that Jesus is a Wonderful Adviser, or others have said it as Wonderful Counselor. But how do we get Jesus’ counsel and advice? The answer is prayer. Now I know it’s Christmastime, but prayer is not a Christmas list of requests. Prayer is exchanging our hearts for God’s heart. It’s changing the things we want for what God wants. The greatest advice we could ever get is what we want will lead to destruction while God’s way leads to life. Now sometimes our plans match with God’s plans but the only way to truly live in God’s advice and plans is by being a person of prayer.

The Destination:

Do you know how we get to pray? Because Jesus is telling our Heavenly Father all of our prayers. Every single prayer is given to God through the power of Jesus. What an amazing fact that we are not by ourselves but Jesus Himself is praying for us. Christmas is the beginning of the story of how we can finally talk to our Heavenly Father. Christmas is a time of joy because we can talk to God about anything anytime we want.

Songs For The Journey:

Wonder by Hillsong United