Advent Devotions

Day 4 – Advent Attention

“Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.” – Mark 13:33 (NIV)

Reflection:

Waiting for God is not a sleepy, idle thing. Jesus tells His disciples to watch and stay awake—to live in readiness, not just for His return, but for His presence right now.

It’s easy to drift into spiritual autopilot—to go through routines without awareness. But the call in Mark 13 is to stay spiritually awake, like servants watching for the master’s return. Not out of fear, but from love and expectation.

Advent echoes this same theme: Christ has come, Christ will come again, and Christ is coming even now in unexpected ways—in quiet moments, in the needs of others, in the whisper of the Spirit. The question is: are we watching?

Waiting on God means we stay alert to His movement in the world and in our hearts. It means living today with eternity in mind.

A headteacher kept a simple tradition: once a term, she would visit classrooms unannounced. No schedule. No warning. She just showed up to see how things were really going—not to catch people out, but to observe the natural rhythm of teaching and learning.

Some teachers were always ready—lessons prepared, classrooms calm, students engaged. Others clearly scrambled when she walked in, papers hurriedly tidied, voices raised, and tension obvious.

She noticed that the best classrooms weren’t the ones that “performed” when she arrived, but the ones that lived ready—they were simply doing what they were supposed to be doing all along.

Lord Jesus,
Help me to live with open eyes and an expectant heart.
Don’t let me drift into distraction or apathy.
Teach me to watch for your presence

—in the quiet, in the waiting, in the needs around me.
Keep me ready, not just for your return, but for your daily leading.
Amen.