Tag: Everyday Emanuel

Jesus Is With Us in Our Joy and Pain 

God’s desire from the beginning has been fellowship. To be with us. 

God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Face to face. When sin entered the world, that relationship was broken, but God’s desire did not change. Throughout the Old Testament His heart cry is repeated, “I will be their God and they will be my people.” 

This desire is also found in the language surrounding the reason God offers us salvation through relationship with Him, that “they will see his face.” (Revelation 22:4) 

That is the goal. Connection. Intimacy. God created each one of us with the need for connection, the need to know and be known by Him. 

And then he opened the folds of time and stepped into our world as one of us. Jesus, Emmanuel, which means God with us. 

With us. Not watching from a distance. Not a kind but powerless force hovering around us. With us, experiencing life in this broken world. 

Jesus knows the pull of this world on our heart. He experienced every emotion that we have felt or will ever feel. And he has experienced one emotion that we will never experience—abandonment by God. 

We often feel alone; I am not discounting that. But the reality is that God has promised to be with us and to never forsake us. Jesus willingly experienced complete abandonment on the cross to offer us peace with God. 

 Why is God being with us important? What difference does it make? 

We have an enemy that works overtime to make us feel isolated, misunderstood, abandoned. He knows that when we feel alone and vulnerable, we are more apt to listen to his lies. We were made for connection and intimacy, so when we feel alone it is easy for our hearts to make this false conclusion: I am not known, therefore I am not loved. 

Jesus is with us, out of love for us, to draw us into relationship with Him. In Jesus we are known, loved, connected—the very things we were created to experience. 

Because Jesus experienced life in our skin, He is with us in our joy and in our pain. 

Pain is part of living in this broken world. We feel pain on many different levels, and we usually work hard to avoid pain on every level. We avoid it by staying busy, numbing out on Netflix, eating, not eating, drinking alcohol, shopping, working, working out … the list is endless. We want to avoid pain so much that we even take good things and twist them to keep numb instead of stopping and looking our pain in the eye. 

And the main problem with all the numbing that we do is this truth: We were not made to live life numb. We were made to push through the fear, look our pain square in the eye, and live life in full. 

Does that sound scary? You bet. 

But we don’t do it alone. 

Jesus stands with us when we face our pain. He guides us into healthy ways of living and thinking and acting. His resources are not limited, and He will provide what we need to face our pain. 

Jesus stepped from the perfection of heaven into the broken chaos of this world to walk with us. Our God is with us every step of the way. 

– Excerpt from In Unexpected Ways: Christmas in Everyday Life

We Are Not Alone in Our Battles 

Jesus became one of us and was tempted in every way we are tempted. He fought the same battles waging inside of us and won. Not to gloat over us, but to say, “I know the battle. Come closer and find your strength in Me. Come and receive forgiveness. Take My hand and I will fill you with hope. Come to the throne of grace in your time of need, with confidence, to find help.” 

Jesus is with us, so we are not alone. He gives us power to fight temptation, so we can say no to sin. He offers forgiveness when we fail and gives us strength to get back up on our feet and walk beside Him.  

– Excerpt from In Unexpected Ways: Christmas in Everyday Life

White Water Rafting & Christmas

The sounds of rushing water grew louder as we approached the turn in the river.  

I tightened my grip on the t-handle of my paddle nervously. 

“Listen to my commands.” our guide reminded us. 

We plunged into the raging waters. 

“Forward 2!” 

There was splashing water, rocks on every side, and no time to look around. My eyes were on my paddle as I listened intently for the guide’s commands. 

After making it through, we raised our oars in a group high-five, adrenaline and relief coursing through us.  

But there was no time to relax; our guide was already preparing us for the next set of rapids and the commands he would use. He also told us what to do if we fell out of our raft. He wanted us to be prepared, no matter what happened. 

We appreciated the fact that he talked us through each rapid before we got to it. No one doubted him or questioned him. We followed his instructions. 

Why did our entire raft follow our guide? Was it because he was a nice guy? Or because he made us laugh? What made us trust him to get us through all the different types of rapids on this river?  

He had been down these rapids before. He knew what to do to make it through safely. And he was in the raft with us, with each rock we got stuck on, each wave that knocked us sideways. He was with us, guiding us through each moment. 

And that reminds me of Christmas.  

It is a perfect picture of how Jesus is with us in every moment of every day. In the calm moments before the rapid, in the middle of the chaos, and afterwards, even if we fall out of the raft. He isn’t shouting commands at us, though. We have His Words in the Bible and those words will guide us if we focus on them.  

Like the guide and the rapids, Jesus walked through this world. He has experienced the things you and I are experiencing. And He did that so He could guide and encourage us in every moment of our days, right here in 2022. 

 Our rafting guide never had to remind us that he was with us in the raft. We were very aware of our dependency on him.  

But remembering that Jesus is with us and responding to life like He is with us takes time. Our hearts are quick to forget, especially when we feel like we are in control. As we get to know God and read what He says in His Word, we become aware of our dependency on Him in the rapids and the calm. 

And better yet, He is a guide that will never fail us. We can trust Him.  

The Psalms are a great place to begin seeing our dependence on God. “David kept his mind so intently fixed upon the providence of God, as to be fully persuaded, that whenever any difficulty of distress should befall him, God would be always at hand to assist him.” (Martin Luther) 

We can also focus on God’s care and provision for us so much that we become convinced that He is always with us and working on our behalf. 

This is Christmas in everyday life.