God Is With You
The prophet Isaiah wrote the words of Isaiah 7:14 nearly 600 years before Jesus was born. At the time of this writing, the Israelites were doing all the right religious things, but weren’t practicing justice as God commands. Like many prophets during Isaiah’s time, this was a warning against that injustice. But among that warning was a glimmer of hope that God would set things right.
Here, the prophet Isaiah is giving the people of Israel a reason to hope because of God’s good promise—the promise that He will provide a sign and He will show up for us. Because that’s what Immanuel means: God with us.
But what does “God with us” mean for us today?
It means we can share in that hope by fixing our eyes on Jesus and trusting in Him. We can trust that from Christ’s birth to His current reign in Heaven—Jesus is God with us.
He’s with us in our pain when we lose a loved one.
He’s with us in our anger when see injustice and don’t know where to turn.
He’s with us in our sadness when we grieve what has been lost.
He’s with us in our joy when we celebrate with others.
He’s with us in our peace, when we’re merciful to a suffering world.
And He’s with us in our hope, lighting the way to a brighter future.
He is with us.
No matter where life has brought you to in this moment—through the good and through the bad—Jesus has been with you, drawing you to Him. He is the promised Immanuel. He is God with us.
Let the world know!
The Old Testament recounts many moments where God provided for His people. But one powerful retelling of God’s greatness is found in Psalm 105.
Psalm 105 focuses on events found in the book of Exodus—when worshipers were encouraged to remember God’s faithfulness and show gratitude for what He's done. And while all 45 verses are worth studying, let’s take a closer look at the verse that sets the tone for this Psalm, and the four ways it invites us into worship…
“Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim His greatness. Let the whole world know what He has done.”
Psalm 105:1 ESV
REFLECT ON GOD'S GOODNESS
Gratitude comes from recognizing what God has done for us. So in order to show gratitude, we have to recognize how God was at work in our past circumstances. When we do that, we can acknowledge God’s faithfulness and genuinely worship Him.
THANK GOD
In Psalm 105:1, the term “giving thanks” stems from the Hebrew word "yadah" which means, “to revere or ...