"Hear the God of Love and Comfort", an Advent hymn.

I'm excited for the opportunity to collaborate with hymn text writer Laurie Gauger on several brand new hymns! We'd like to offer "Hear the God of Love and Comfort" as a FREE sheet music download through the last Sunday in Advent (December 20th).
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I love the great care Laurie takes in writing wonderful texts which focus squarely on God's Word. Below is the text to "Hear the God of Love and Comfort," along with her text notes. 

1. Hear the God of love and comfort:
Tenderly to you he speaks.
He knows you are weak and weary,
Burdened by your guilt and grief.
But—take heart!—he sends a Savior!
Jesus comes to set you free.

2. Know that though he comes a baby,
Helpless in a manger bed,
Jesus is your King and Savior,
As inspired Isaiah said.
He will die and rise in glory:
Calv'ry follows Bethlehem.

3. Now prepare for Jesus' coming
To that manger mean and dark.
Make for him another cradle,
​Clean and bright inside your heart.
Faith prepares the way, the welcome
For the King who comes so far.

4. So repent! Remove what hinders
Jesus' reign of love in you.
Clear the rocks and ruts, oh, sinner!
Make your Ruler's highway smooth.
Know this King is kind and gentle,
Peace and pardon bringing you.

5. Ponder and proclaim this promise, 
For the Word is ever true:
Jesus Advent King and Savior,
Paid the price of sin for you.
Guilt is gone, your bondage broken.
Jesus' coming makes life new.

Laurie F Gauger 2015
​Advent 2 (Series B) Isaiah 40:1-11

Click here for a sound clip of "Hear the God of Love and Comfort".

Isaiah 40 is the turning point of that long and beautiful prophetic song and a familiar reading during the Advent season. It begins with the well-known words: "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for."

Isaiah is speaking of the end of the Babylonian captivity, but his words also speak to our release from the bondage of sin through the coming of the Savior.

One hesitates even to attempt another hymn on this lovely text when the centuries-old "Comfort, Comfort Ye My People" (Olearius/Winkworth) is so well-loved and widely used. And yet here we are.

I wanted to convey some of the key messages of Advent through the scaffolding of simple verbs:
Hear what God says in Isaiah 40: He sees your sin and has relieved you of the burden: your "sin has been paid for."
Know that the baby who comes at Christmas, though a helpless little boy, is the one who will save you from your sins. He is born at Bethlehem in order to die at Calvary.
Prepare for Christ's coming to Bethlehem and to your own heart: "prepare the way for the LORD."
Repent of your sins as part of that preparation: "Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain." Repent, knowing that your King is not only powerful but also gentle: "He rules with a mighty arm. . . . He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart."
Ponder and Proclaim: Knowing that "the word of our God endures forever," boldly share the good news of Advent— "Here is your God! . . . Your sin has been paid for." As God delivered Judah from their bondage in Babylon, he has also delivered you from the bondage of sin. And now life, like the beginning of the church year, is brand new.