My family has loved doing advent devotionals for years, so I decided to write my own. I pray it blesses your family as much as it’s blessed mine.

You can purchase the whole book in print or in an ebook format on Amazon. You can download a printable set of ornaments here or draw or make your own!

Day 10: The Promised Land

Picture / Ornament: Cluster of Grapes

Scripture: Numbers 13:1-2, 17-33; Numbers 14:1-9; Numbers 23:19;
Psalm 103:1-5, Hebrews 11:1,6

Song: 10,000 Reasons

God always keeps his promises. Always.

Do you remember some of the promises that God made to Abraham and Jacob? One of those promises was that God would give the land of Canaan to their descendants. Sometimes Israel is called “The Promised Land” because God had made this promise.

Has anyone ever broken a promise to you? Have you ever broken a promise you made to someone else? Unfortunately, we, as humans, sometimes break our promises. Sometimes something unexpected happens, so we can’t keep a promise we made. Sometimes we get sick or our car breaks down or it’s raining.

But God is not like us. God will always keep His promises. God never gets sick. God is never too tired. God is all-powerful and all-knowing, so He never makes a promise He can’t keep. We can always trust God. Always.

When the Israelites arrived at the Promised Land, God told Moses to send twelve men to spy out the land. After spending forty days in the land and seeing how wonderful the land was, you’d think the people would be eager to go into the land, but ten of the spies said they should not go into the land. They thought the people there were too powerful, but two of them, Joshua and Caleb, encouraged the Israelites to trust God and to have faith in God’s promises. Are any people more powerful than God?

Faith is believing that what God says is true, even when you can’t see it. God had helped His people again and again — passing over their firstborn sons, rescuing them from Egypt through the Red Sea, giving them manna from Heaven — yet the people doubted God’s power and God’s goodness. Because of their lack of faith, they had to wander in the desert for forty years before they could enter the Promised Land.

God had a special purpose for this special land. God’s Son, Jesus, was born there, in the promised land of Israel. Jesus was from the family line of Judah, one of Jacob’s twelve sons, born in the town of Bethlehem in the Promised Land.

Today is a perfect day to trust in God, being sure of what you hope for, being fully convinced of what you cannot see, trusting that Jesus is the promised Savior of the world.

Remember … Christmas is all about Jesus.