Emmanuel: God With Us

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I keep hearing and seeing so much pain, heartache, fear, loss, disappointment, confusion, and sadness. These last 8 months have been so hard and discouraging at times.

I have watched dear friends and family experience loss on so many different levels, and humanly speaking, it is overwhelming! As the Lord often does, He opened my eyes to some things during a recent family devotion time on the name of Jesus, Emmanuel. Matthew 1:23 says, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”

When Jesus was born, the Jews were under Roman rule and were not a free people. They were coming off a 400-year period of silence from God. I think they could have been feeling fear, disappointment, sadness, heartache, and a longing for Messiah. Then an angel tells Mary she will give birth to Emmanuel, the long-awaited Savior.

Emmanuel means, God with us, literally. Jesus would take on human flesh and live his life here on this earth. He would be God and perfect man. He was our rescue from sin and death and separation from God for eternity, because He was our perfect sacrifice. He would live on this earth without ever sinning, die on this earth on the cross as the payment for our sins, and then He would gloriously rise from the dead to conquer sin and death and provide our way to spend eternity with God! This is the reason Jesus was born.

The word “hope” keeps coming to mind. The Jews now had Emmanuel with them! You know, this didn’t take away the Roman government or the effects of living in a sin cursed world. There was still sorrow and heartache. There was still death and loss and pain. But the fulfilling of the promises in the Old Testament through Jesus brought about a different atmosphere, hope.

In John, Jesus tells the disciples and future believers that He will send a Comforter to them when He leaves to be with the Father. Basically, he was saying that I will still be with you. I looked up the word “with” in the Strong’s concordance. It means with, after, behind. In other words, you could say that God is with, after, and behind us. What a beautiful thought!

We long for the day when we are with him in Heaven, but until then, He is still with us each day, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Rom 8:38-39 says, “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So, while everything seems so uncertain around us and we long to see Jesus face to face; those of us that our His children can put our hope in Emmanuel, God with us. He hasn’t left us! He is walking along beside us each step of the way. His love and hope outlast and overcome death and fear! His love is always present and sustaining.

This world is scary and hard. The disappointments, loss, fear, and discouragement keep on coming at us. We can be overwhelmed by all of it! However, I am preaching to my heart this Christmas season that He is Emmanuel. He is with, before, and behind us at all times. He loves us.

The physical rescue we are longing for may not come here on this earth, but the rescue is coming! Romans 8:18 “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Emmanuel, God with us, our hope for these hard and trying times

Guest Post by Sarah Lindsay: I am Sarah Lindsay. I am a follower of Christ, wife to Brian Lindsay, and homeschool mom of 4 kids. I also co lead a community group at Teach Them Diligently 365. I just want to love Jesus with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I also have a burden to come alongside and encourage women to be in the Word every day.

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