Advent is supposed to be a season of sparkly anticipation, but if we are honest, it often feels heavy. We carry the weight of a broken world, personal grief, or just the sheer exhaustion of the year. It can feel hypocritical to sing about “thrills of hope” when we feel so little of it.
In our first week of Advent study, the Apostle Paul meets us right in that heaviness. In Romans 8, he doesn’t tell us to cheer up. Instead, he acknowledges that the entire creation is “groaning.”
But Paul reframes this groaning completely. He argues that the pain we see and feel isn’t the death rattle of a dying world; it is the labor pain of a new creation trying to be born.
This changes everything about how we define “Hope.” Biblical hope isn’t optimism that says, “I’m sure things will get better soon.” Biblical hope is the certainty that God has promised a new reality through Jesus, and we are willing to wait for it, even through the contractions.
If we only hope for what we can currently see, that’s not hope at all. This Advent, let’s not ignore the groaning. Let’s name the ache. And then, let’s lean into active patience, trusting that the labor pains are proof that new life is on the way.
Download our 2025 Advent Devotional HERE