God with us | Andy Elmes | 12th December 2021

Let us embrace what Christmas is really about! God is with us. He stepped into this world and dwelt among us - God incarnate. God Himself in the man, Jesus. In fact, through faith in Christ, He has stepped into our lives and lives within us. We were once separated from Him. Now, by His grace, He lives in us. In that sense, God is incarnate in our lives (John 14:16-17).

Incarnate means embodied in human form (especially of deity or spirit). So, the risen Christ, by His Spirit, has come to live in us! We need to be “Christ inside” minded. Greater is He that is in me that he that is in the world. (Gal 2:20).

Christ in me is all I need! He is everything. My all in all. More than enough. Our lives are now to be influenced by the One who lives in us. Ephesians 5:15-21 spells out the detail of this for us.

We are not to be drunk, intoxicated or under the influence of anything opening the door to evil in our lives. Rather, being under the influence of the Holy Spirit. If Christ lives in us we do not wish to live under the influence of things that people in this world live under. This includes fear, anger, hatred etc. God has given us a sound mind – 2 Timothy 1:7.

As we approach Christmas, let’s be conscious of Emmanuel (God with us) rather than being self-conscious. Let us lift our eyes up to Jesus and look to Him for all we need (2 Cor 4:7). Let us discover afresh that God is resident in our lives!