Worship II Day 11 A Savior’s Love

Micah 5:2
Matthew 2:6
Isaiah 7:14
Isaiah 9:2-7
John 1 

“Let’s stand and worship the Lord…” As the band begins to play, the congregation stands up and starts singing. Those of us who are church-goers hear this every week.
I love singing.
I love music.
I love its capacity to tell a story and unlock the inner portions of the heart. Whatever you’re feeling, you can always think of a song that resonates with you.

Worship music is different, though, because the focus is not on us – it’s placed fully on God.
Worship communicates our love and devotion to Him
for who He is and what He has done.

My home was always filled with music, but Christmas music is particularly special to me. Even though my family did not attend church or pray in the home, it was an annual tradition. Singing to celebrate Jesus’ birth was awe-inspiring. It was different than other singing.
It connected me to something – Someone – bigger.

As John wrote in John 1, Jesus was the Word from the beginning.
In our darkness, He is the Light.
The prophets foretold that Jesus would be born to a virgin girl,
born in Bethlehem,
born in obscurity,
born in humility,
to come to this earth in obedience to the Father to demonstrate love.

His is a love unlike any other.
His love for us is so passionate and so profound that He left His glorious position of royalty in heaven to begin life on earth in the same way that we do: as a single cell. Jesus was deity and humanity in one person, unique, holy, and remarkable, yet in unremarkable circumstances: in Bethlehem, in a cave…born to a virgin and a carpenter.

But the angels knew who and where He was.
And they made sure that the unremarkable people,
the shepherds, were the first to be told.
Jesus came for every person, even those who are usually looked down upon.

He came to understand our suffering, to be tempted like we are, yet not sin.
He came to show us the Father, to take away the sin of the world, and to give us abundant life (John 10:10).
He came to live among us and then to die for us.
His love would not allow for his most prized possession (James 1:18 NLT) to remain forever separated from him.
Jesus Christ’s death on the cross redeemed us, Sisters!
He bought us back from the slave-master of sin!

Each Christmas season we are reminded of the obedient, life-giving sacrifice of Jesus because of His love for us.
We remember that He set aside all He had to come for us.
We can allow Jesus to be “born in us” at Christmas – or any time – by asking for forgiveness of our sin and turning away from it to live for Him.
Jesus humbled himself to be born and live on earth.
If we humble ourselves to Him and allow Him to be Lord of our lives,
His love will give us life and flow through us naturally to show Himself to others.

My mom has been gone for 12 Christmases, and I still have the longing to talk to her. Why? She knew me better than anyone else. She knew my moods by just the tone of my voice or the look on my face. And even when I was being ugly she loved me.

Multiply this by infinity and you’ll catch a glimpse of the heart of God.
This is why we should worship Him!
This is why he deserves our time and attention.
He loves us in our ugliness, in our brokenness, in our sinfulness, in our rebellion.
He loves us so much that He gave part of himself, His own unique Son, to demonstrate that He is here with us and for us.

He has a purpose for us.

He so desperately wants a relationship with us that He took the punishment we deserve and defeated the power of sin and death.

Being in His presence draws us instinctively to worship!
We shouldn’t be able to do anything else.
My prayer for you this Christmas is that you would allow your entire being to be wholly focused on the glory, the beauty, and the majesty of Jesus, our Light, the baby in the manger who came to set us free!

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