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God With Us: The One Who Keeps His Promises

God has never stopped pursuing us.

The Lord crafted mankind in the Garden of Eden. They were designed to glorify God and delight in Him. Above all, mankind was made to depend on the goodness and wisdom of God.

But love allowed them to decide. They entered into sin, obtaining what was forbidden rather than being content with the God who supplied them with abundance. Mankind wanted to depend on their own understanding. They desired to have the knowledge of what is right and wrong for themselves rather than obeying the Lord. Because of this, the relationship between God and humanity was broken.

God, who is perfectly holy, banned them from the Garden, but that was not the end of the story.

His declaration of the consequences of their disobedience also foreshadowed a day when a descendant of Adam and Eve would destroy the sin by saying that He would bruise the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15)

Yahweh selects a group of people to be His own. They would be preserved, and through them, a Messiah would come. They would learn the standard of holiness set forth by God in the laws.

God rescued His people from slavery, revealing that His power was endless. He displayed His grace by sending prophets to continually turn a rebellious people back to the one true way. He corrected them, but it was always wrapped with mercy and grace.

The people were continually unfaithful to the Lord, turning instead to please their own desires, but this is not the end of the story.

God did not pull away from a humanity engulfed in darkness but instead drew closer.

Through the prophet Isaiah, God foretold of a day when the Messiah would come to deliver His people from sin. He said in prophecy, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light” (Isaiah 9:2).

Today, we can be thankful for a God who keeps His promises.

That promise was fulfilled over 2000 years ago when a small baby boy entered the world.

The promise did not come as many would expect, as He came in the most vulnerable form. He could have come as a wealthy king or from a prominent family.

But He came exactly as it was prophesied. Isaiah 7:14 says:

“All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).”

Jesus is God with us, and He is the only gift we ever needed.

Why did He come? Simply because we needed Him to.

God saw our sin and brokenness and came even closer and wrapped His loving arms around us. Romans 5:8 says,

“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

The little baby came and grew into a man who would be mocked, persecuted, and crucified on the cross.

Yet, this paved the way for God to be even closer to humanity.

We needed saving from our sins. We needed to encounter a love so great that it would transform our rebellious hearts.

And when we put our faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit lives inside us (John 14:15-18).

He is our guide, comforter, and strength.

Not only at the moment we accept Christ do we need Him, but for the rest of our lives we need to be carried by Him.

He is with us in our brokenness when we wonder how much more we can take.

He is with us in our sorrows when tears flow from our faces.

He is with us when we are filled with gratitude for the season we are in.

He is with us in the uncertainty when we do not know what the next chapter will bring

God is with us because He is a good and merciful God who did not turn His face from humanity in our darkest hour.

In a society that continually tells people to do whatever feels right to them and rely on their own strength, the Bible tells us an entirely different story.

This Christmas, may we be reminded that Immanuel, God Himself, came and dwelt with us, not when we were at our best, but when we were totally depraved.

Because of this, we are given hope that is always present.

The light has come, and the darkness cannot overcome it (John 1:5).

How will you respond to this kind of love?