Prayer Call: O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Hello BFB Family & Friends!

As we enter the final month of the year, we are launching into something special. A series called: The Advent Playlist. Over the next few weeks, we will explore familiar songs of the season - songs we may hear in church, on the radio, or throughout our homes - and connect them with the heart of Advent.

Advent pulls us in two directions - looking back and looking forward. Advent itself means "coming" and during this season we look back and remember that Christ did come - just as the prophets declared. Every detail of His birth was the fulfillment of centuries - old promises. We celebrate that God kept His word.

We also look forward by holding onto the hope that Christ will come again. No matter what we face - uncertainty, loss, fatigue, transition - we anchor ourselves in the assurance that God is not finished. He came before, and He will come again. 

This tension - this holy stretching - is what gives Advent its beauty. And it is what gives us hope. On Sunday we began this journey and today we continue by centering our hearts on Matthew 1:22-23 (NIV) and on the theme for this first week of Advent: Hope. 

"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel' (which means 'God With Us')." - Matthew 1:22-23 (NIV)

One of the songs guiding us this week may not be sung often in church, but its cry echoes deeply within the soul: “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” This ancient hymn captures the longing, waiting, and expectation that defines the hope we have as God's people.

Matthew 1:22-23 reveals three powerful truths that ground our hope because hope is not just a feeling. Hope is a posture that we have in our heart. 

Matthew reminds us: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet.”

Every prophecy concerning Jesus came to pass—exactly as God promised. God didn't forget what He spoke through Isaiah. He didn't forget what He revealed to Micah. He didn't forget that he would be born from a virgin, that he will come from Bethlehem, that He will be called Immanuel. He didn't forget a single word. And He will not forget the promises He has spoken over your life.

God doesn’t change His mind. He doesn’t take back His word. He doesn’t overlook what you’ve prayed or what He has whispered to your heart. If He promised it, He will fulfill it—sometimes slowly, sometimes silently, but always faithfully.

Just as every prophecy concerning Jesus came to pass, every promise that God makes to us - He will keep. We just have to be willing to have that hope and rest in the confidence that God keeps His promises.

If He promised you a family - He keeps that promise. If He promised you that you would be healed - He keeps His promises. If He promised you that you will start a business - He keeps His promises.

God finishes what He starts. God's word will not return to Him void. What God promises, God will deliver on. 

His name—Immanuel—means God with us. Our hope isn’t rooted in circumstances. Our hope is rooted in God's presence. It's based on what's going on right now in our lives, but rather on what God is doing as He walks with us and sustains us. Whether on the mountaintop or in the valley, we have to have hope that God is with us.

Even when we can't feel Him, we can't hear Him, we can't trace what He's doing...we trust that He is Immanuel. Especially in those times where we can't see Him, sense Him. Those times when we can't feel Him, we have to trust that He's right there with us.

"O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" resonates because it echoes the cry of every believer who needs God to show up in real places - in our challenges, our questions, our transitions, our medical appointments, our travel, our tough conversations, our grief, and our beginnings. When life is life-ing and people are people-ing. We have to hold on to the hope that God is showing up. And He does. Again and again. 

When you study this scripture, you see there's a waiting season that is happening. Before Mary felt a single kick of the Messiah… God was working. Before Joseph understood his assignment… God was working. Before the shepherds saw the angels… God was working.

The same is true for us. Waiting does not mean God is absent. Silence does not equal inactivity. Just as we saw in the book of Esther, God is always arranging, aligning, and preparing things behind the scenes. Your waiting is never wasted. God is working in ways you cannot see, knitting together what He has promised.

I encourage you to pray this week. Lord, teach us to trust you - even in the unseen, even in the waiting. Remind us that You keep Your word. That You are always with us, and You are working in every moment. Give us hope, not just for this season, but for every day that lies ahead.

So as we begin this Advent season think about hope, what it means to have hope. Hope isn't something that we just arbitrarily throw out - it's not this thing that makes us look weak. Our hope is assured on one thing: Christ came. Christ is with us now. Christ is coming again.

Our hope rests not in how things look, but in who God is.

God is with you. God is with me. God is with us. Immanuel.

Amen and Amen.