Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God is with you; the mighty One will save you. He will rejoice over you. You will rest in his love; he will sing and be joyful about you. Zephaniah 3:17 (NCV)
With the season of Christmas and into Epiphany, we rejoice in the coming of Jesus. Like the verse for today, it reminds us that God came to live with us through his Son and He remains with us through the Holy Spirit.
Like many of my devotions over the past two years, this passage makes me think of our relationship with God through the lens of a parent. He came to us not only to save us but also so that we may know Him. I think seeing God in our human ways, which I think He invites by coming to us in human form through Jesus, helps us to connect to Him. As a parent myself, I want to be there for my children. I want to celebrate their milestones, and I want them to rest easy knowing my love for them will never change. How great is it that our God does that for us?
Admittedly, the challenge with giving God human traits to better understand Him is that it inherently limits the limitlessness of God simply so we can better understand him. In that way I remember what my parents have recently been teaching me: “My God is big enough.”
God really can be all things for all people. For some that can be following a particular set of rules and rituals, where for others it is simply knowing that there’s nothing you can do to earn His love… and He gives it to you anyway through Grace. As you go through Epiphany and the start of the year, I would encourage you to reflect on how big God is and what that means for you.
Questions for Reflection:
- What human traits do you sometimes put to God to better understand Him?
- Have you thought about what “musts be traits” relating to God limit the limitless?
- Have you reflected on just how big your God can be to be so much for all people?
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, words cannot express how thankful we are that You came to us through Your Son Jesus. We know that You share our humanity and everything that comes with it. Thank you for the gift of understanding you through this and help us to remember how to expand what would be limitations we would put on You. Amen.
Login To Leave Comment