Blessedness of Emmanuel
Devotion was good. We really rarely have the opportunity, that’s why I told the Lord what a wonderful time it was. Then, I was reminded by Him, ‘draw near to me and I will draw near to you’. I thought about that and relished the blessedness of Emmanuel…the blessedness of having God with us. It doesn’t just mean that His presence is with us. It means that His peace, power, love, grace…every part of Him is with us. For that, I feel so blessed!
Come Fri, the second time we met for devotion, we came before Him with burdens upon our hearts. I started singing You Are My All in All to declare His sufficiency and Leon sang Just A Closer Walk With Thee. I was reminded of Psalms 23 and what my lecturer shared in class saying that the metaphor of a Shepherd also corresponded to the metaphor of a King for the Hebrews. It was an apt reminder that He is King. He is greater and more than able to carry those burdens brought before Him.
On another note, I was really blessed in an unexpected way on Thu. In my hurry to complete my reading before Thu morning’s New Testament II class, I was speed reading on the bus on my way to school with a ‘not so right spirit/attitude’ if you know what I mean. I was a little grouchy because of the time pressure. Nevertheless, I came across this encouraging writing by Michael F. Bird:
He (Paul) takes solace from the fact that ‘Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day’ ( 2 Cor 4:16). The degenerative effect that trials have upon the Christian cannot overcome the regenerative power of God in sustaining them. Christian ministers should take comfort from the fact that if God intends to use them, then in the course of time he renews them in order to continue the work to which he has called them.
God is good. I was rewarded with encouragement despite my poor attitude towards learning. I am humbled too.