Behold Your King!

Yesterday, I had a ‘thorn in the flesh’ that was rearing its head up again. Try as I might, I couldn’t make it go away (as if anyone besides the Lord has the power to do that!). So, I just waited, hoping the Lord might give me a word of encouragement. Suddenly, I experienced that phenomenon where God answers your prayer before you even think to pray it. Part of the second verse of ‘O Holy NIght’ rolled gently into my mind: He knows our need - to our weakness is no stranger. Behold your King; before Him lowly bend! Before I go any further, I must mention that ‘O Holy Night' is my all-time favorite Christmas hymn - how thoughtful of the Lord to choose that hymn to comfort me with!

Every time I sing ‘O Holy Night’, I always separate Behold your King… from the rest of the verse thinking that our Lord’s kingship has nothing to do with His compassion and that whoever wrote the verse must have decided to suddenly change topic at the end of it. Wrong! Yesterday, the Lord gently impressed on my mind that our compassionate God is the King we are beholding! Our King truly is no stranger to our weakness . Jesus left His right to be glorified(note: He was still fully God and equal to God) and took on the physical appearance and some of the limitations of man. He experienced physical, mental, and emotional pain. As a traveling teacher, He had to depend on others for food and lodging. Satan tried to tempt Him. Jesus had few friends and even His disciples betrayed Him. In the end, His enemies even went so far as to kill Him (but, praise the Lord, Jesus claimed the victory for us by His resurrection!). I think the Lord knows what our earthly existence is like!

And He loves us so much that, rather than completely destroy His creation and save Himself unimaginable suffering, He chose to pay the price, sweating drops of blood at the prospect. It was worth it to Him to know that those who wanted to follow Him and were truly repentant of their sins would be saved from eternal suffering and granted eternal peace and eternal life with their Lord. As you think about what kind of King we are beholding this Christmas, meditate on the beautiful vignette found in Philippians 2:5-11 NIV:

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made Himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself

and became obedient to death -

even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place

and gave Him the Name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.”

Praying that you have a very Christ-filled Christmas!

Sabrina