Today's advent devotion was written by Bill Mayall:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  - Romans 15:13

For me, one of the most difficult aspects of my daily devotional time is uttering those words that we all are so familiar with from the Lord’s Prayer…“thy will be done.” Some days I find myself struggling to say them with real confidence…not totally sure where they might lead me. After all, I have my own wish list, too! Many times over the years, what I thought I wanted (and often prayed for), did not materialize. Sometimes challenges or obstacles appeared that I felt like I neither wanted nor needed…in some cases even feeling those impediments were unfair! However, upon further reflection, in retrospect, I look back and see that I was actually led to something even better. Hmmm, it’s almost as if there is a grand plan orchestrated by One who knows even better than me what I might need. I once read something that said…a sign of God is that we were lead where we did not plan to go. Fortunately, I’ve been blessed with lots of signs in my life, and understanding, and accepting that, enables me to say each day, sometimes even boldly…“thy will be done.”