God Steps In

Micah 6:8 - He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? 

We all have things in our lives of which we can't make sense. They might be situations of little minor irritations to complete hopelessness. We've done all we can and nothing we do seems to be able to work them out.

Bad things happen to good people. Sometimes it's just what life doles out to us. Sometimes we make consistently poor choices. In either event we might actually come to the end of our rope...or hope.

Christmas is about the perfect gift. It's about the miraculous birth of an even more miraculous boy. His name is Jesus. He is also called Emmanuel or God with us. He came that we would have that hope. He willingly chose to leave His rightful place on the throne in heaven to be born on earth in humble surroundings by humble parents, to live a humble life and die a tragic and humiliating death...for all mankind.

God stepped into our lives then so He could make Himself known, that those who heard Him speak, watched Him heal, or touched His wounded body, could continue to proclaim the awesomeness of this Man.

I heard the verse of a song I know I’ve mentioned once before and was taken once again back to the first time I heard those words, which came directly from Scripture. It’s the above Scripture. He does show us what is good. He shows us our imperfections and inability to succeed apart from Him. We are to walk humbly with Him. I think of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before the apple incident. They walked and talked with God. Then one little bite of that forbidden fruit and they were separated from His presence. That’s when I believe we began to do things on our own, in our own way, in our own strength. It was more difficult to live without the real presence of God. 

And so life goes on for so many in today’s world. When we allow ourselves to stop dead in our tracks of life and realize we cannot do all things on our own, without Divine help, we can find a Perfect Gift when we finally seek His assistance.

I was watching a Christmas movie the other night...more like listening as I busied myself with a project. A question was asked of someone, What was the first Christmas present? The man answered glibly, A tie? He was asked to continue thinking about it.

Later this man and his wife were devastated by the loss of their small girl. In time it was evident that this man needed more than his work could do to cover up the grief. He needed the One who could replace the sorrow. Long story short, he realized that the first real Christmas gift was a Baby. The Baby Jesus was the first great gift anyone ever needed. Along with His birth came love. He came out of love that He might, through this love, save us from ourselves, seeped in our sin, wandering our own aimless directions into oblivion and into a very certain territory of eternal death.

Jesus paid the price by being born with the very intent of dying for us. He will wash away the sorrow and ugliness of sin. Struggling without His help is why He came. He came to take up our burdens, to give us His strength, to show us a great future, despite hardships and even death, that can be filled with hope. The hope of Jesus Christ, the hope of glory.

When we are at the end of ourselves we are humbled. Jesus is only a prayer away. He steps into our lives if we so choose and He brings with Him hope, peace, love and most of all forgiveness of all the things we did (and will do) apart from Him and against His will.

God stepped into this world for us. He steps into the hearts of all who seek Him. Glory to God in the highest. I heard a woman last night say that when she finally gave her life to Christ her first Christmas as an adult with her sins forgiven, her past life behind and the great future she now knew lay before her, the words to all the well thought out Christmas songs made so much more sense and touched her in a whole new way. That's funny because in one of the songs (Hark, the Herald Angels Sing) that she and a group sang, some of the  words go like this:

Mild He lays His glory by

Born that man no more may die

Born to raise the sons of earth

Born to give them second birth...

Born to give them second birth popped out last night for me, again. Second birth. Born again. We sing these songs multiple times during the Christmas season. He humbly came down from heaven, that glorious place, that He might die for us...to give us a second birth. A spiritual birth. The birth I talk about in my blogs. One that comes when we humbly give ourselves to Him, give all our problems over, decide we cannot make it in this world without Him and then grab hold of this new life in Christ.

All it takes us humbly confessing to Him our need for Him, confessing we've sinned and fall way so short of His glory and asking Him for forgiveness of our sins, our treading this world in our own strength, pride and stubbornness, and allowing Him to step into our lives. We don’t need to go to anyone else. He is a God who hears our prayers. 

God steps in...the old is made new...eternal death is replaced by eternal life. Receive the true meaning of Christmas this year, not a tie, but a baby Boy, Emmanuel, God with us. He is the God who steps into our lives when we humbly come to the end of ourselves.

Psalm 86:5 - For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.