December 17th, 2025
by Sarah Hines
by Sarah Hines
Advent 2025 DevotionalCore | Peace
December 17, 2025
Written by Steven Krusie
Title: What Can Peace Look Like?
Scripture:
My Reflection
This passage from Isaiah describes specific physical details of what changes, even transformations, will occur when God’s people return from Babylonian exile to Jerusalem. It is a promise of well-being, peace and joy that is a prophetic hope for an enslaved people. For me, it is a message that transcends the physical into spiritual and eternal manifestations when we allow God to dwell within us by acknowledging His omnipotence over our lives and all of creation; and how His love for me transforms my awareness of His presence in me, through me and all around me.
This text changes how I see my circumstances and the people around me and helps me to contemplate on how I have been blessed and how I might use my time and resources in ways that are Kingdom-focused rather than earthly and temporal. I’m compelled to prayerfully contemplate what joy, peace and mercy I might experience personally when I surrender my selfish desires to a life of servanthood for Christ. During this Advent season, I’m especially grateful for The Gathering faith community that has welcomed my wife and I as new retired transplants to St. Louis where the Holy Spirit is alive and vibrant and intentionally desires to share that good news with anyone and everyone.
My Prayer:
Holy Immanuel, help me to give my life fully over to you. To love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength; and my neighbor as myself. Help me live a life that serves as your hands and feet in my neighborhood, city, and world, as a sincere reflection of the awareness and acceptance that your Holy Spirit dwells within me for eternity and nothing in this world can change that. Knowing your love and mercy for me is a gift that I can never earn, but only accept with my heart, head and hands wide open. Truly, a peace that surpasses all understanding. Amen.
Reflection Questions
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December 17, 2025
Written by Steven Krusie
Title: What Can Peace Look Like?
Scripture:
Isaiah 35:5-7
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be cleared.
6 Then the lame will leap like the deer,
and the tongue of the speechless will sing.
Waters will spring up in the desert,
and streams in the wilderness.
7 The burning sand will become a pool,
and the thirsty ground, fountains of water.
The jackals’ habitat, a pasture;
grass will become reeds and rushes.
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be cleared.
6 Then the lame will leap like the deer,
and the tongue of the speechless will sing.
Waters will spring up in the desert,
and streams in the wilderness.
7 The burning sand will become a pool,
and the thirsty ground, fountains of water.
The jackals’ habitat, a pasture;
grass will become reeds and rushes.
My Reflection
This passage from Isaiah describes specific physical details of what changes, even transformations, will occur when God’s people return from Babylonian exile to Jerusalem. It is a promise of well-being, peace and joy that is a prophetic hope for an enslaved people. For me, it is a message that transcends the physical into spiritual and eternal manifestations when we allow God to dwell within us by acknowledging His omnipotence over our lives and all of creation; and how His love for me transforms my awareness of His presence in me, through me and all around me.
This text changes how I see my circumstances and the people around me and helps me to contemplate on how I have been blessed and how I might use my time and resources in ways that are Kingdom-focused rather than earthly and temporal. I’m compelled to prayerfully contemplate what joy, peace and mercy I might experience personally when I surrender my selfish desires to a life of servanthood for Christ. During this Advent season, I’m especially grateful for The Gathering faith community that has welcomed my wife and I as new retired transplants to St. Louis where the Holy Spirit is alive and vibrant and intentionally desires to share that good news with anyone and everyone.
My Prayer:
Holy Immanuel, help me to give my life fully over to you. To love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength; and my neighbor as myself. Help me live a life that serves as your hands and feet in my neighborhood, city, and world, as a sincere reflection of the awareness and acceptance that your Holy Spirit dwells within me for eternity and nothing in this world can change that. Knowing your love and mercy for me is a gift that I can never earn, but only accept with my heart, head and hands wide open. Truly, a peace that surpasses all understanding. Amen.
Reflection Questions
- Who are the people that have helped encourage me, or provided a helping hand or lovingly embraced me as a person of worth and dignity?
- Who needs encouraging affirmation, a helping hand, or a loving embrace that God puts in my daily sphere of influence and physical surroundings this Advent season?
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Posted in Advent Devotional
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Archive
2026
January
CoreGroup Guide | Shift Happens Part 1Three Reasons to Worship This Weekend // M-Note 1.10.2026A Mix of Celebrations and Bittersweet News // M-Note 1.17.2026CoreGroup Guide | Shift Happens Part 2CoreGroup Guide | Shift Happens Part 3Spread the Word: Online Only Worship on January 25 // M-Note 1.24.2026A Hard Lesson to Learn...Life's Not Always Fair // M-Note 1.31.2026
February
CoreGroup Guide | Shift Happens Part 4CoreGroup Guide | Power of Serving Part 1CoreGroup Guide | Power of Serving Part 2Ash Wednesday - The Party's Over | Lent Devotional Day 1Led Into the Wildnerness | Lent Devotional Day 2Take a Step Back to Grow Closer to God // M-Note 2.21.2026Celebrating Lent - An Oxymoron? | Lent Devotional Day 3CoreGroup Guide | Power of Serving Part 3Let's Journey With Openness | Lent Devotional Day 4What we Mean by "Penal Substitution" | Lent Devotional Day 5The Cross - Sin and Nearness | Lent Devotional 2026 Day 6The God Who Doesn't Look Away | Lent Devotional 2026 Day 7Worthy of Belonging | Lent Devotional Day 8Confession Without Self-Hatred | Lent Devotional Day 9The Repairer | Lent Devotional Day 10The Lamb of God | Lent Devotional Day 11Why Did Jesus Have to Die? // M-Note 2.28.2026
March
Turning the Lights On | Lent Devotional Day 12CoreGroup Guide | Why Did Jesus Have to Die? - Part 1Love That Leads to Change | Lent Devotional Day 13Like Ads for Love | Lent Devotional Day 14Who are You…Really? | Lent Devotional Day 15Nothing Between Us | Lent Devotional Day 16Let It Rip | Lent Devotional Day 17Christ + Nothing | Lent Devotional Day 18An Unjustifiable War // M-Note 3.7.2026CoreGroup Guide | Why Did Jesus Have to Die? - Part 2A Queer Atonement | Lent Devotional Day 19In Christ Was Life, the Light For All People | Lent Devotional Day 20Failure and the Invitation To New Imagination | Lent Devotional Day 21Jesus & Queerness: Entertaining Angels | Lent Devotional Day 22The Least of These | Lent Devotional Day 23The Good News For All Creation - and the Strange Wonder of God’s People | Lent Devotional Day 24Ready to Receive an Invitation // M-Note 3.14.2026Christ’s Death Frees Us So His Reconciling Life Can Flow Through Us | Lent Devotional Day 24 CopyFeminist Atonement Theory | Lent Devotional Day 26CoreGroup Guide | Why Did Jesus Have to Die? - Part 3Time to Tear Down | Lent Devotional Day 27God Doesn’t Glorify Violence, Man Does | Lent Devotional Day 28God Shares in Our Emotions, Death, and Resurrection | Lent Devotional Day 29A Meal that Matters | Lent Devotional Day 30The Cross is About Community | Lent Devotional Day 31Only Later Did It Begin to Make Sense | Lent Devotional Day 32CoreGroup Guide | Why Did Jesus Have to Die? - Part 4Jesus is Liberator of the Oppressed | Lent Devotional Day 33The Bigger Picture - Exodus, Jesus, and the God of the Oppressed | Lent Devotional Day 34Marginalized Prophetic Voices Emphasize God’s Character | Lent Devotional Day 35Freedom from Sin is both Personal AND Communal | Lent Devotional Day 36Christ’s Victory Empowers His People to Serve | Lent Devotional Day 37Jesus and Community | Lent Devotional Day 38CoreGroup Guide | Why Did Jesus Have to Die? - Part 5Serving (at Easter) is Powerful // M-Note 3.28.2026Working Out My Own Salvation | Lent Devotional Day 39Christ’s Triumphal Entry in Jerusalem | Lent Devotional Day 40Do I Trust that Christ’s Sacrifice is Enough? | Lent Devotional Day 41I Will Sing to the Lord | Lent Devotional Day 42
2025
January
Happy New Year // M-Note 1.4.2025Cancel the Noise // M-Note 1.11.25Cancel the Noise Discussion Guide - Part 1The Beloved Community // M-Note 01.18.2025Cancel the Noise Discussion Guide - Part 2What A Coincidence // M-Note 1.25.25Cancel the Noise Discussion Guide - Part 3Cancel the Noise Discussion Guide - Part 4The Original Influencer // M-Note 2.1.25
February
The Beloved Community Discussion Guide - Part 1Exploring New Sites…And You’re Invited // M-Note 2.8.25The Beloved Community Discussion Guide - Part 2Uncovering Implicit Bias // M-Note 2.15.2025A "Flurry" of Activity // M-Note 2.22.25The Beloved Community Discussion Guide - Part 3The Beloved Community Discussion Guide - Part 4
March
Beloved Community Action Steps // M-Note 3.1.25Vulnerability & Wilderness | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 1Trusting the Spirit's Lead | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 2Courageous Connection | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 3What's Your Emotional IQ? // M-Note 3.8.25The Spaces Between Us | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 4Emotional Rollercoaster Discussion Guide - Part 1Jesus Weeps With You | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 5When Sadness Lingers | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 6Lurking in the Shadows | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 7Cycles of Life and Death | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 8Inked in Memory | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 9The Void of Grief | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 10Sending Forth // M-Note 3.15.25Emotional Rollercoaster Discussion Guide - Part 2Journey Not Alone | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 11Friends Along the Way | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 12The Loneliness of Fear | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 13Not Through With You Yet | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 14Clinging to Hope | 2025 Lenten Devotional | Day 15
1 Comment
Thank you so much for these
nAdvent readings. I am looking forward to them each day!