When Trust Is Hard. Immanuel, God With Us
January 11
Week 2 – Trust Under Pressure
“All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’). Isaiah 7:14
“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’” Matthew 1:23 NLT
Break It Down
This message is spoken to King Ahaz more than seven hundred years before Jesus is born. Let that sink in for a moment.
Judah is under threat. Political pressure is real. Fear is shaping decisions. And King Ahaz is still looking for alliances, for backup plans, for something he can control. Trusting God feels risky when everything feels unstable.
And into that moment, God speaks. And not with a warning or a demand. But with a promise.
A child will come.
A son will be born.
And He will be called Immanuel.
God with us.
This is God saying, You can trust Me, even when the pressure is on, even when the fulfillment is far off, even when fear feels louder than faith.
Trust Question
When pressure builds in your life, what do you actually trust in that moment?
God’s Intention
We need to pause and consider what “God with us” would have meant to King Ahaz and to Israel.
These were people who knew God, but they knew Him through distance and structures. Through prophets and priests and sacrifice. Through the temple system.
Access to God was real, but it was mediated.
You didn’t just walk into God’s presence. You came through process. Through blood and ritual.
So when God declares, “God with us,” this is not poetic language or comfort talk. This is a radical statement.
It speaks of nearness and of presence. Of a God who refuses to remain at a distance from flawed, fearful, imperfect people.
And that matters just as much now as it did then.
Weave It In
What does God with us look like in real life?
Not in theory or in church language. But under pressure.
God with us when money is tight.
God with us when decisions feel overwhelming.
God with us when fear keeps us awake at night.
God with us when relationships are strained.
God with us when we don’t know what the next step should be.
And then the story goes even deeper. Because God with us becomes God in us.
At the point where we choose to believe in Jesus and to follow Him, there is a trust transaction that takes place. Not earned. The Holy Spirit takes up residence within us. God is no longer near only in concept. He is present, active, and personal. And that matters.
And it brings us back to why we are here.
This is about trust.
God is asking us to trust Him ahead of outcomes. Ahead of control. Ahead of the things we instinctively run to when fear rises.
And we can trust Him because He did exactly what He said He would do.
He promised a Savior. And He sent His Son. King Jesus.
And this is one of the most well-documented realities in human history. Lives changed. History shaped. Truth preserved. And still, the question remains.
Will we trust Him?
Practice for Today
You may already be noticing something as we move through this week. Some of these verses and themes might start to feel repetitive.
That’s not an accident.
We (humanity) are slow to learn. Slow to listen. Slow to trust.
When pressure hits, we drift. We reach for comfort. We grab control. We run to substitutes that promise relief but can’t truly hold us.
God knows this. And so yes He repeats Himself. Not to shame us, but to reach us from different angles and through different moments with patience and grace.
Stay with it and let it sink in. Let God show you where trust still needs to grow.
Prayer
Father God, You know the pressure we live under. You know how quickly we turn to other things when fear rises.
Thank You for being patient with us.
Thank You for staying close, even when we drift.
Teach us to trust You, not because life feels easy, but because You are with us, and You always have been.
In Jesus name we pray, Amen.