HOPE 365 Toolbox - Weekly Devotion - January 20th

Resilience is God-With-Us

By Amy Kopecky

We understand the incarnation of a Savior so differently after a long pandemic. How many of us want to be in the flesh, face to face, with people right now?

God in the flesh carries more gravity now.

Can you imagine if Jesus came in 2020 or 2021 and everyone had to watch his teachings and miracles via Zoom? Jesus wouldn’t be limited in his healing powers, of course, but we wouldn’t know the story of the woman healed from her bleeding just by grasping his robe. Jesus wouldn’t heal the blind man by touching his eye with his own spit. Jesus used his body to heal.

At his Last Supper with his dearest friends, Jesus brought the wine to his human lips and promised his blood would be shed for us. He broke the bread and chewed it in his own mouth before his body was broken for us. Jesus used his fleshly body to save us.

As a kid, do you ever remember waking up in the middle of the night from a bad dream and crying for your parents? Maybe they snuggled up in bed with you or you in bed with them, tucked in cozily next to their warmth and security. It was possibly the only way you could go back to sleep—by feeling their bodies next to you.

That’s what God-With-Us means. That’s what it means to be in the flesh. In person. We’ve gotten to see how important this is because we’ve gone without it for so long, and now it’s impossible to ignore: there is a mysterious power in physical presence and physical touch. So much so that God contained himself in flesh to meet with us, to cozy up next to us, so that we could feel his warmth and know what the Almighty is like. This is the greatest and most comforting mystery of all time, and especially now when we are looking for the strength to carry on.

If you are feeling lonely, broken, misunderstood, financially stressed, questioning, confused, ragged, battered, exhausted, or hopeless, then filter your feelings through God’s Word today and know that Jesus loves you so much that he is with you right now. He is not looking through a pixelated screen, but straight into your beautiful eyes and sees the actual person you are—not the person you pretend to be or think you need to be, but the actual person. He won’t leave you if you’re wearing mismatched sweats or if you missed your deadline or got a bad grade or if you lost your temper with your family.  He died for all of that and gives you a new beginning (mercies new every morning!); He just asks to be invited into your dirty house to be present with you while you wash your dishes, work, cry, laugh, sleep, live.

As we embark on this timely new Resilience series, remember that Jesus goes with you everywhere, and his love will give you the strength you need to keep on keeping on.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24

Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for never leaving my side. Thank you for loving me as I am even when I’m at my worst, and thank you for dying for my worst and giving me a new start every day. Please give me the same mighty resilience that carried you from death to life. Great is your faithfulness! Amen.