2025 Advent Devotion: Day 10

Wednesday, December 10

Genesis 15:1-18; Matthew 12:33-37

This year, my wife and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. It feels like yesterday we were newlyweds, dreaming about the family we hoped to have: two children, boys or girls, it didn’t matter. Yet after years of medical appointments and treatments, we were no closer to holding the children we longed for.

As coworkers and friends began having children, we outwardly celebrated with them, but privately we grieved. Still, we didn’t give up on our dream of children, nor did we give up on God. Deep down, we trusted He would bless us with children, whether through adoption or biological means. What we needed was patience and faith.

Scripture shows how essential these qualities are. In Genesis 15, an aging Abram wonders how God will fulfill His promise. In response, God assures Abram that he will have a son of his own flesh and blood, and his descendants will be as numerous as the stars. Yet Abram had to wait at least 15 years before Isaac’s birth, and his descendants would spend 400 years in captivity before entering the promised land. Still, Abram believed and was patient, and his faith was counted as righteousness.

Abram’s story reminds us that patience and faith go hand in hand. Jesus expands on this in Matthew 12 when He says, “A tree is recognized by its fruit” and “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” Abram’s faith produced the fruit of patience, revealed both in his words and his deeds. God saw that fruit and fulfilled His promise to Abram.

This season of Advent, we remember Israel’s long wait for the promised Messiah. We also acknowledge our own wait today for Christ’s promised return. As we wait, the question is: What kind of fruit are we bearing? Do our words and actions reveal faith in God’s promises? Does our faith produce the patience to wait for God’s timing in answering our prayers?

The good news of Advent is this: God always keeps His promises. God sent His Son into the world, not because our faith is perfect, but because God’s grace is. And even when our patience runs thin or our faith wavers, through Christ, God still loves us and will fulfill His promises.

This Advent season, my wife and I rejoice with our 10-year-old twin daughters as a living reminder of God’s faithfulness. And this Advent, we rejoice even more in Jesus, God’s greatest promise to be fulfilled. May you and your family also find joy and peace in Christ this season, as you wait in hope for His return!


Jeff Spargo
Senior Pastor, Covenant Baptist Church, Gastonia, N.C.