I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

John 10:9-10

Do you feel like you’re scraping through 2020? Sometimes, on a spiritual level, that’s how I imagine I’ll make it into eternity one day: Tired and exhausted; barely scraping through by the skin of my teeth.

This is not the picture that Jesus paints! He wants us to understand that he came—not to help us drag ourselves across the finish line of life—but for him to impart His victory on us in all its fullness and richness. Even for today!

It isn’t surprising then that one of the key strategies the enemy uses to rob us, is to run us ragged on detours. He tries to convince us that Jesus is holding out on us in some way, so that we start to look for life in all the wrong places. Nothing creates discouragement quite like the insidious feeling that the finish line only ever seems to be over the next rise.

Confidence in Jesus is the ultimate antidote to that kind of spiritual exhaustion. Proverbs 13:12 says: “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life”. Jesus is inviting you to have your hope renewed as you feast on Him as the Tree of Life. In what areas of your life do you need to renew your confidence in him? What does it look like for you to trust in Him this Advent as the one who can fulfill your deepest desires?

May this Advent be a time for you to turn again to receive abundantly from the Giver of Life. May you end 2020 fully refreshed by the joy of his forgiveness, hope and perfect peace!