God With Us

"... they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, God with us" - Matthew 1:23b

Over the last 2 weeks we have read about the truth and joy of Christmas being based on God's love for us. God loves us so much that He sent Jesus on a mission with a message of love. Christmas is a yearly reminder that God loves you. The Bible says God is love. It does not say God has love - it says God is love because love is His nature. He created the whole universe, He created every thing in this world, and then He created you because He loves you. One could say that the reason you live is because God created you as an object of His love. God made you so He could love you and so that you can love Him.

God's love for each one of us is the reason we can breathe and our hearts beat. God's good news is that He loves you on your good days as much as He loves you on your bad days. He loves you when you can feel His love, and He loves you when you don't seem to feel His love. He loves us whether or not we think we deserve His love. There is nothing we can do that will make God stop loving us because His love for us is based upon His character and not anything you do or do not do, say or do not say, feel or do not feel.

God loves us so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus, on a mission into this world so "that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16b). When the baby Jesus grew up to be a man, He was God's missionary to us. His whole life purpose was to serve us and to die for us. God's love is beyond all our knowledge and it is at times hard for us to understand the width, length, height and depth of God's love for us.

God gave the baby Jesus a number of names to tell us about the character of Christ and the purpose of His life. One of Jesus' name is 'Immanuel' which is translated "God with us" (Matthew 1:23b). Hebrews 13:5 tells us the Lord is with us forever for He Himself says God will never abandon us. You may not feel God's presence in your life right now, but that is no indication that God is not there. Matthew 28:20 tells us He is with you - now and "even to the end of age".

God understands loneliness better than anyone of us - even better than a brother in WFA who loves to quote Genesis 2:18 "It is not good that man should be alone". Loneliness is certainly not an issue unique to single people - there are many married people even here in Seremban who are desperately lonely. You feel lonely because God created you to need people in your life - but regardless of how many friends you have - your loneliness will remain until you are intimately connected to God. The good news is that because of the birth of Jesus, you know God is with you and you never have to face another day alone.

God's presence with us removes fear. You don't have to worry and you don't have to be anxious about what is going to happen. You may not feel like God is with you on some days but His presence in your life has nothing to do with your feelings. Through the birth of Jesus, God says, "I love you, I have marvellous plans for you and I am going to give you hope". If you are lonely this Christmas, let Jesus fill any emptiness in your heart and know that He is with you and will come back to this world for you.