What does that really mean to us personally and practically?

It has been said that you can teach people what you know but that you reproduce who and what you are.

They say the longer you are with someone, the more likely it is that you will become like them. This is especially true of married couples who have shared a long life together.

Maybe it is also true of the Bride of Christ, so that the more we are with Him the more we want to be like Him?

The opposite is also true – when love is low and hearts are cold and our walk with the Lord Jesus is distant and indifferent, then our attitudes are harder, our compassion less sensitised. We are less like our Lord.

We should therefore guard against anything that takes us away from Him.

Around the beginning of a new year, I am always keen to hear from the Holy Spirit a word for the year …some area He prompts me to focus on growing in for the year. For 2022 that word was “Christlikeness” and I spent considerable time pondering on it, studying it and allowing Him to mold it into my heart and life. So, somehow the age-old Christmas phrase “God with us” resonated differently with me this year!

A well understood leadership principle is: “More is caught than is taught.”

Jesus chose His disciples so they might be “with Him” (Mark 3:14), accompany Him, learn from Him, become like Him.

This Christmas …. take some time to really consider how “God With Us” has had such an affect on you personally and practically … how the longer you are WITH HIM the more you are becoming like Him.

Otherwise, all we have is religion and a religious festival.

#Christmas2022 #RichestBlessingstoyouandyours