This prayer, written by Aarik Danielsen, was read for the fourth Sunday in Advent.

O God,

You have never had more or less glory than You have today.

Before time, You were the all-Glorious One.

Once You spoke the world into being, You deserved all the adoration and honor Your creation could muster.

But, as we have observed this Advent season, we have been reminded that we are slow to recognize Your great glory.

Our ancestors saw evidence of it; in its abundance, it surrounded them in creation and in the many mercies You thread throughout a single moment.

Yet, they either blinded themselves to Your glory or took credit for it. And, in our hindsight, we see that we have done the same.

And, so to rescue us and fix our eyes on You, Your glory overflowed into our world in an incredibly personal, direct way. It entered the Earth in the form of a child, Your only Son, Your very nature in the flesh.

And still we missed Your glory. Those who saw Jesus in person mistook His meekness for weakness, His kingdom for a wish dream. Those who learn of Him today call Him prophet, teacher, homeboy, everything but Lord.

Yet those of us here today can testify that Your glory has overflowed into our lives. Rather than leave us to our own devices, You made us see. You opened our hearts to You. You made the perfection of Your Son’s life, the tragedy of His death and the power of His resurrection beautiful and real to us.

Lord, we long for Your glory to overflow into our lives again today.

Let it overflow into our hearts, so that we might see You for the beautiful one You are. Make Yourself the true and only object of our affection.

Let it overflow into our marriages, so that they might become pictures of the Gospel.

Let it overflow into our homes and families that You might be preeminent there.

Let it overflow into our church so that we might be known as people who have been with Jesus.

And as Your glory overflows into our lives, a lavish, almost embarrassing display of Your great riches, let it flow out of our lives and into the life of our city.

We know there will be a day when Your glory will be unmistakable, when “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” (Hab. 2:14)

We yearn for that day. And we yearn to see glimpses of it now.

Let Your glory flow out of our church and into this neighborhood, so that its residents might turn their hearts to You.

Let it overflow into the lives of white, black, Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern, every tribe represented in Columbia, so that we might experience a heavenly taste of reconciliation.

Let it overflow into every corner of our city so that false worship will be overcome and false worshipers reborn to turn their praise to You.

We thank You that this day is coming. Our waiting is not in vain. It is promised and it has been secured.

We do not hope for it like those who hope to see a Christmas wish come true; we are not like those who hope against hope that next year will be better.

Our hope is a person. And we know He will deliver on His promises. For He is the one who brought us into Your glorious presence to begin with.

Just as Jesus was, He is. Just as He is, He is to come.

In the same way, the light of Your glory has broken through. It is breaking through. And it will break through and shine forevermore.

With the Christmas angels we sing, "Gloria in Excelsis Deo."

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Read the other Advent prayers: Glory Created, Glory Stolen, and Glory Descended.

images from the Karis Church Instagram