Hi, friend. Have you ever wished that you could just muster up the joy you know the Advent season is supposed to elicit, but you're just not sure how?

Today we're talking about how remembering the promises of God can fuel our joy for the season.

I'm Yves Stipes, and my co-host, Ruth Joe Simons, and I are so glad you're here.

For this whole season, we're digging into what it looks like to value and make and protect

space for Christ in our hearts during the Advent season.

Last week, we kicked things off with the discussion about our heart posture for the season,

so if you missed it, make sure you go back and start there.

We are praying for your encouragement through today the season. So if you missed it, make sure you go back and start there.

We are praying for your encouragement through today's conversation. So let's get to it.

Today we're talking about the promises of God and why knowing God's promises actually matter when we're celebrating this outfit season and preparing

for Christmas, right? Because I think so often we're all saying we're celebrating,

we're celebrating and we kind of don't know why we're not joyful. And I think even for those

of us who have been walking with Christ for a long time, I think sometimes we just forget

what it is that he truly

came to do. And so when I was, Eve, when I was writing, prepare him room cards that later on

became the fleshed out devotional book called Emmanuel, I really knew I wanted to spend a week

during the Advent season talking about what were God's promises,

what was in his mind when Jesus came. And so I want to read you just something straight out

of Emmanuel that I wrote about this. I wrote so many of us scurry about at Christmas time,

hoping to find meaning in this season when the true

gift of the birth of Christ is found in unfathomable love in the heart of God. We can't muster up

the feeling we want to feel at Christmas. We will only experience the magnitude of Christmas to

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