Day 1- Incarnation

The more of my being I intentionally give to God, the more of my time, energy, and devotion I invest into an abiding connection, the more I begin to sense at my core the power of God’s incarnation. 

Throughout human history civilizations have looked for God. They’ve looked for God in the stars. They’ve looked for God in the elements. They’ve looked for God in themselves. 

A great mystery of Christianity, a mystery that holds real power for our lives, is that while so many look for God and fail to find him, there is nowhere we can go that he is not there.

In Acts 17:28 Paul tells us that it is in Christ that we “live and move and have our being.” Psalm 139:7-10 says, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” 

And most visibly at Christmas, we celebrate the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus: 

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

But maybe the greatest opportunity in the first coming of Christ is not that he took on flesh for a 33 year period, but that God has always dwelled with us. From the first garden in Genesis to the great city in Revelation, God has never wished to be distant from us. His plan was never to veil himself. 

He is always working, always speaking, always revealing, always incarnating himself among us. 

The definition of incarnation is a person who embodies in the flesh a deity, spirit, or abstract quality. 1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us that we are now the temple of the Spirit. In Matthew 25:40 Jesus says that our acts of love are ultimately done unto him saying, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” 

In setting our eyes on the incarnation of God in Jesus, may our eyes be opened to see the incarnation of Christ still among us. And as we seek and find the reality of God in and around us, may that reality deepen our abiding connection to this God who loves us so deeply that he would so wholly dwell among us. 

As we pray, may God open the eyes of our hearts to reveal the riches of our inheritance in Christ incarnate (Eph. 1:18). 

Guided Prayer: 

1. As we begin, reflect on the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus. Think about the sacrifice Jesus made to take on flesh and dwell among us. Think about the depth of God’s love that he would accept the limitations of humanity for our sake, how deeply he desires to know and be known by us.  

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

2. Next reflect on the reality that God dwells in you. In a way, you are called to be an incarnation of God, expressing his loving nature in your uniqueness. Take time to focus on the connection between your spirit and the Spirit of God. 

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own” 1 Corinthians 6:19

3. How can you, in your uniqueness, incarnate the love of God today? How in this Christmas season do those around you need to see Christ in you? Ask God for insight, and commit to embodying more fully the Spirit of God in you.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” 1 John 4:7

Go

As you go about your day today, looking forward to Christmas, begin to frame your values around finding and keeping a real connection to God’s presence with you. Seek to pay attention to ways he might be speaking to you, or leading you, that come from that place of relationship with God. Seek to see God in others around you, knowing that everyone represents the imago dei, a being made in the image of God. And allow yourself to sense the saturation of God’s presence that comes when we see him not as vastly separate but truly filling and moving around us.