◄ What Does Matthew 1:23 Mean? ►

"BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US."

Matthew 1:23(NASB)

Verse of the Day

Sometimes we are so familiar with the words of Scripture that we fail to see the enormity of their content. Sometimes the Word of God has become so commonplace in our lives that we have lost the eternal context and significance of God's eternal plans and purposes.

So it is with the Scriptures that detail Christ's birth. These Scriptures are some of the most well known and well loved, even with unbelievers as, year after year, they sing carols, attend nativity plays, and maybe even attend a church service celebrating Christ's birth.

Let us look at these Scriptures with fresh eyes, and with the leading of the Holy Spirit, grasp some of the enormity of that moment, when God was made flesh, stepped out of eternity and into time, to fulfil the plans and purposes of the Father, laid before the foundation of the world.

God, the omnipotent, omniscient, infinite, eternal, omnipresent, immutable, holy creator of the world and the universe with all its visible and invisible elements, laws, and structures; Who set time in motion and flung innumerable stars into space – laid aside His great glory and humbled Himself to come to earth as a helpless and vulnerable newborn baby.

He came to live a life of humiliation, rejection, suffering, and pain, and finally to be cursed and condemned to the cruellest method of execution imagined by the evil minds of wicked men so that fallen humanity could be brought back into full fellowship with Himself and one day see God face to face - one day live with Emmanuel, God with us.

Let us cast aside this familiarity with Scripture that deadens our minds and numbs our perception of Who God is and take time to gaze in awe at God's Word with a renewed freshness and a heightened wonderment of the amazing reality that God Himself should become Emmanuel, God with us.

Let us rid our commonplace apathy towards the Word of God, and view the reality of Christ as Lord of heaven and earth Who undressed Himself of His magnificent heavenly glory and covered Himself with a mantle of humanity's flesh to became Emmanuel, God with us, so that we could shed our filthy rags and be adorned in Christ's robes of righteousness and become sons of the most High God and joint heirs with Christ, our Emmanuel - God with us.

My Prayer

Loving Heavenly Father, I pray that I may see you with fresh eyes as I read the precious story of Christ's birth. May I love you with a deeper love as my understanding of You grows. Thank You that You are living in me and that one day I will see You face to face and know as I am known. In Jesus' name I pray, AMEN.