Welcome to Advent 2025! Each Sunday, we’ll explore the verses of Mary’s song in Luke 1:46-55 until we reach its crescendo on Christmas Eve. From 11/30 to 12/27, we’ll read biblical passages that prompt Mary’s praise and prepare us to enter the pageant of the birth of our Savior.
Advent Passage: Hebrews 11:1-12:3
Decades after Mary sang of God’s mercy to Abraham and his descendants, the author of the book of Hebrews wrote to encourage believers to persevere in their faith. Hebrews 11 is often called the “Roll Call of Faith” because it recalls the faithfulness of Abraham’s descendants as they waited on God to fulfill His promises.
As you read through this list, you will see a record of God’s work in the lives of the Israelites up to the time of Jesus’ birth. Each of these individuals (and many more unnamed) believed God and participated in His acts of mercy “by faith.” The author of Hebrews defines faith as “being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (1:1).
This representative list grew to include Jesus’ disciples during His ministry, and it continues to expand and lengthen to include all of us who believe in Jesus and trust in His merciful love for us. Faith requires us to trust God, and this roll call encourages our belief in God by reminding us that God is ever faithful to His children.
Today’s passage reminds me of the faithful witnesses that surround me:
By faith my friends believe in the merciful love of Jesus.
By faith my friends do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with the Lord.
By faith my friends work through relational heartbreak and love one another.
By faith my friends grow and stretch and prune branches that no longer thrive.
By faith my friends await diagnoses and move toward health with hope.
By faith my friends manage budgets and bless others generously.
By faith my friends are free to mourn, dance, cry, and laugh abundantly.
By faith God helps my friends, remembering to be merciful to them, just as He promised.
Wherever we are on this journey of faith, we are not alone on the path. In His merciful love, God helps us in all our circumstances and provides friends who walk by faith beside us. Therefore, let us throw off the things that hinder us and the sin that seeks to divide, distort, and destroy us. May we keep our eyes on the Merciful One before us until our lives bear witness to those who journey beside and behind us, by faith.
© 2025 Lori Myers Berry
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