AGAPE LOVE

Paul reminded the church at Corinth the kind of love Christ offers to us: agape love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7 NKJV).

Don’t we need the same prescription today? Don’t groups still fight with each other? Don’t we flirt with those we shouldn’t? Aren’t we sometimes quiet when we should speak? Someday there will be a community where everyone behaves and no one complains, but it won’t be this side of heaven. So till then we reason, we confront, we teach. But most of all we love.

Such love isn’t easy—not even for Jesus. Listen to his frustration in Mark 9:19 (NCV): “You people have no faith. How long must I stay with you? How long must I put up with you?” How long? Until it kills me. Jesus bore all things, believed all things, hoped all things, and endured all things. Even the cross.

Devotion by Max Lucado | The Almighty Jehovah | https://thealmightyJehovah.com

What Gabriel Never Expected

Prior to Bethlehem God gave us his messengers, his teachers, his words. But in the manger God gave us himself. Extraordinary, don’t you think? I imagine even Gabriel scratched his head at the idea of “God with us.” Gabriel surely was not one to question his God-given missions. When God sent, Gabriel went.

And when word got out that God was to become a human, Gabriel was no doubt enthused. He could envision the moment: The Messiah in a blazing chariot. The King descending on a fiery cloud. An explosion of light from which the Messiah would emerge. What he never expected, however, was a slip of paper with a Nazarene address. “God will become a baby,” it read. “Tell the mother to name the child Jesus. And tell her not to be afraid.”

Gods With Us Promise

Jesus understands you. He’s faced hunger, sorrow, and death and wants to face them with you. The Bible says Jesus “understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

If Jesus understands our weaknesses, then so does God. Jesus was God in human form. He was God with us. That’s why Jesus is called Immanuel. Immanu means “with us.” El refers to Elohim, or God. So Immanuel is not an “above-us God” or a “somewhere-in-the-neighborhood God.” He came as the “with-us God.” All of us.

“I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Search for restrictions on the promise, and you’ll find none. There’s no withholding tax on God’s “with us” promise. God is with us. What great news!

AGAPE LOVE

AGAPE LOVE

Related Posts

What Gabriel Never Expected

Gods With Us Promise

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