Living Life With

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
    She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
    which means ‘God is with us.’” Matthew 1:23 (NLT)

There we sat in the Emergency Room. We had gone to church and as we were leaving my father-in-law started having some problems. We thought he was just over tired. He lived with us so we headed home to let him rest. When we got to the house, it was apparent that it was more than that. In his own strength he could not stand up. So, we loaded back into the car and went to the ER.

As we sat there, I sent a text to the prayer chain and asked for prayer. People started texting prayers and good thoughts immediately. We were comforted by their thoughts. Then about 30 minutes later, some of our friends from church showed up with pizza and a cooler full of snacks!

They realized we had gone straight from church to the ER and had probably not eaten all day so they brought us food. Can I tell you that totally changed our outlook and it warmed our hearts. Our friends looked at our situation and decided to walk through it with us instead of watching us walk through it on our own.

Jesus did the same when he came as a baby. That act of love was Jesus coming to be with us. He came to walk with us, eat with us, hurt with us, face temptation with us and then he died for us. It’s a special kind of love that puts aside what is easier to “live life with”. When Jesus did it, we took notice and because of his involvement, we know we are special to him and to God.

Is there someone you can “live life with” today, this week and especially this holiday season? Do what Jesus did. Come along side someone and walk with them. The ripple effect can be eternal.

If We Believe

You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said. Luke 1:45 (NLT)

When the Angel told Mary that she was going to miraculously conceive, it would have been really easy for her to say “That’s impossible. I know that won’t happen.” No one would have thought it strange that she discounted it. No one would have blamed her for walking away from that conversation and saying “No thank you. That is physically impossible.”

But Mary didn’t do that. She believed that God would do what God said and she walked into the unexpected. She embraced a new reality.

In Luke 2, there are more examples of people embracing what God told them.

First, the Shepherds. When the Angels showed up and said the Messiah, a Savior, was born but he’s lying in a manger, it would have been easy for the Shepherds to say “That’s not the way it is supposed to be done. If he’s our King, he can’t be born in a manger.” But they didn’t. They went to look for him. They believed and they acted on that belief.

Simeon did the same. The Holy Spirit told him he would not die until he saw the Messiah. So he sat at home and waited for God to bring the Messiah to him. No! He was in the Temple looking for what God had revealed.

Anna, the prophet, did the same. She was in the temple constantly; praying and fasting looking for the Messiah. She was waiting expectantly for what God said would happen.

When the Holy Spirit speaks, how reluctant are we to follow that leading even when it seems out of the realm of our possibilities? Do we follow up on the promptings so God can lead us to his plan and purpose? Or, do we easily discount what we are told as impossible? Is it possible that we don’t see as many miracles as we could because we are looking in the realm of our possibilities and not God’s?

For nothing will be impossible with God. Luke 1:37 (ESV)