“Immanuel; God with Us!”

Am I walking in light of His Presence?

Throughout the Christmas season, I was continually reminded that we have a Savior who is IMMANUEL- God with Us!

Although the more I pondered that He is with us, the more I questioned, “Am I aware of His presence with me?” Do I live my life in light of His presence?

Psalm 89:15 says, “Blessed are those who have learned to praise you, who walk in light of your presence, O Lord.”

His Word is full of reminders that He is with us!

• Isaiah 41:10 says, “Fear not, for I am with you…”

• He told Moses in Exodus 3:12 (as Moses was battling fear of leading the Israelites out of Egypt), “I will be with you!”

• He told Joshua in Joshua 1:5 “… as I was with Moses, I will be with you: I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

• He told Gideon in Judges 6:12, “… The Lord is with you Mighty Warrior.”

I’ll be the first to admit that when life gets hard, I don’t always recognize His presence in my life. I have learned that many times our circumstances tend to cloud our vision and keep us from recognizing that He is with us in our hardest moments.

In Luke 24, we see two disciples walking along the road to Emmaus and Jesus begins walking with them, (although they didn’t recognize Him in that moment.)

You see, Jesus had just been crucified a few days earlier, and discouragement had overtaken the disciples that He (Jesus) had spent so much time with! It wasn’t until they started talking to Jesus about their discouragement and invited Him into their hopelessness that they began to recognize His presence with them.

The disciples were experiencing hopelessness, and I believe their hopelessness clouded their vision. For so many of us, hopelessness in our circumstances is what keeps us from recognizing God’s Presence in our own lives.

But when we continue reading in Luke 24, we see where they insisted Jesus stay and eat with them and as He “broke bread” with them, their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. They also said that their hearts began burning within them when He talked with them on the road and opened the scriptures to them. I love that. I know for my own self, the more time I spend with Jesus, the more easily I begin to sense His presence with me.

You see, the more time they spent with Jesus, the more they began to recognize His Presence also. To me, this passage is a reminder that Jesus opens hearts, opens eyes, and opens minds- when we invite him into our hopeless moments. Why? Because He is the God of Hope!

Romans 15:13 says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

My prayer is that even in the moments of discouragement and despair, we invite Him to walk with us: we talk to Him about our heartache and our struggles and we allow Him into these moments and begin to “walk in light of His presence.” It is in these moments that we are reminded that He truly is Immanuel; He is God with us! And He cares about you and the struggles you have!