Joy in Emmanuel

 Psalms 16: 5-11; Colossians 1: 9-13

 

This week’s Advent candle is Joy. We now have three flames of light in the darkness. We have gone from Hope in God’s Love and from this we have Joy in our salvation – in the Christ child who will come and bring us salvation.

David in Psalms 16 finds fullness of joy in the presence of the Lord. His heart is glad, and his soul rejoices since he keeps the Lord always before him – God being at his right hand. Due to this he won’t be moved. He will endure and have patience during the hard times of life. He claims that in God’s right hand are pleasures forevermore.

The Lord being always present and before him brings us one of the names of Jesus given at his birth – that of Emmanuel meaning God with us. Jesus fully God incarnated became human to bring salvation to us. So instead of dying and going to Sheol or the Pit God will show David the path of life. This way of life will be shown in the life the baby Jesus will live out. The way of eternal life will also be provided in Jesus’s death on the cross for our sins.

Colossians 1 tells of how God has enabled us to share in the inheritance of the saints of life. Ow Christ’s work on the cross has rescued us from the power of darkness into Christ’s kingdom of light.

Though we have joy in our salvation, our Pleasure was promised to the Psalmist in the afterlife. Christian walk may not be a total pleasure ride. Though we are thankful for the gift of eternal life where we are promised eternal bliss, our life on earth is not always so.

Paul prays for the Colossians that they may walk worthy of the Lord, pleasing God and bearing fruit in good works. He prays for them to be strengthened by God’s power during the hard times so they can endure and have patience always giving thanks to the knowledge of God’s will in understanding so they can have this gratitude – this joy – even in the midst of troubled times knowing that it is well with their soul. They can see then the light of Christ’s power and love to pull them through.

Being in Christ’s kingdom, Christ is at our right hand. Let us be filled with joy being thankful for Emmanuel – God with us – Christ’s presence that gives us the strength and endurance during the rough times. Amen.

 

 

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