THE ANTIDOTE TO GUILT

“That evening [Adam and Eve] heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden” (Genesis 3:8 TLB). What had happened to the first family? The first couple said yes to the serpent’s temptation and no to God. And when they did, their world collapsed like an accordion.

The only antidote to guilt is the power of God’s grace. I could take you to the church where this grace found me. I was a twenty-year-old college sophomore. For four years I had lived with the concrete block of guilt, not just from the first night of drunkenness but also a hundred more like it. But mercy snapped the chains of guilt and set me free. I know this truth firsthand: guilt frenzies the soul; grace calms it.

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!

THE ANTIDOTE TO GUILT