O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

 

Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
— Isaiah 7:14 (NKJV)
 
For centuries, God’s people waited.
They waited through silence, through uncertainty, through generations that passed without seeing the promise fulfilled. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel gives voice to that longing — the quiet ache of hearts crying out, Come. Stay. Rescue us. Be near.
The name Immanuel appears in Scripture, spoken as a promise long before its fulfillment. It comes from the Hebrew and means “God with us.” Not a distant God. Not a God who watches from afar. A God who steps into human flesh and chooses to dwell among His people.
In the hymn, we sing the name Emmanuel—the same name, expressed through centuries of worship and tradition. Different spelling, same truth. The promise spoken in prophecy becomes the promise sung by believers across generations: God is with us.
Waiting is rarely comfortable. We live in a world that demands instant answers and quick solutions, yet Advent reminds us that waiting is often where faith is strengthened. It is in the waiting that hope takes root. It is in the quiet that God is still working, even when we cannot see it.
Maybe you’re in a season of waiting right now—waiting for healing, for peace, for clarity, for restoration. This hymn reminds us that God’s promise does not expire. What He has spoken, He will fulfill. Immanuel has come… and Emmanuel is still with us today.
Today we have 10 days before Christmas.  As we begin this journey toward the manger, may we slow our hearts, remember the waiting, and rejoice—not only because Christ came into the world, but because He continues to come near to us, right where we are.
 
#dailybreadbykitty
Daily Inspiration from the Bible

learning to be loved

 
We love because he first loved us.
- 1 John 4:19 (NIVUK)
 
As this week wraps up, I find myself coming back to one simple but not-so-easy truth:
Before we can truly love the way God calls us to love… we have to first learn how to receive His love.
Frances Chan teaches in his book Beloved that allowing ourselves to be loved by God means abandoning the need to prove our worth and instead resting in the secure, unchanging love He already has for us, a transformation that brings freedom and changes everything.
And honestly… that rings so true.
We’re really good at doing.
We’re pretty good at giving.
We’re even decent at serving.
But being still long enough to believe that we are fully loved—right where we are? That’s tough.
So many of us walk around carrying quiet shame and quiet regrets, the quiet reminders of all the ways we think we’ve failed.
We know God loves the world…
We just struggle to believe He loves us with that same depth and tenderness.
But Scripture is clear:
We don’t love God first.
He loved us first.
Before we cleaned up.
Before we figured things out.
Before we got it together.
Christmas proves that God didn’t wait for us to become worthy—He came because we weren’t.
And the truth is this:
Until we fully receive the love of God, we will always struggle to give the love of God.
Because you can’t pour out what you refuse to believe you truly have.
When we live loved, we love differently.
We forgive more freely.
We give more generously.
We judge less harshly.
We show up more consistently.
Love stops feeling like pressure… and starts feeling like overflow.
So today, maybe the bravest prayer isn’t “Lord, help me love better.”
Maybe it’s simply:
“Lord, help me believe that I am deeply, completely, and unconditionally loved.”
Because once that settles into your heart—
Everything else begins to change.
 
#dailybreadbykitty
Daily Inspiration from the Bible

not just for you

 
By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
- John 13:35 (NIV)
 
One of the things that stood out to me so strongly in church this week was this reminder:
God’s love is for you… but it was never meant to stop with you.
“By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”
Everyone.
Not just the people who look like us.
Not just the people who think like us.
Not just the people who are easy to love.
Everyone.
It’s such a simple verse, but it carries such a big responsibility. The way we love is meant to be a living, breathing testimony of Jesus to the world around us. Not our church attendance. Not our Bible knowledge. Not the Christian quotes we share online. Our love.
And let’s be real… loving people is not always easy.
Some people push our buttons or hurt us deeply.
Some people live in ways we don’t understand or agree with.
Some people carry labels that make it easier to judge them than to love them.
But God didn’t put conditions on John 3:16 either, did He?
God so loved the world.
Not the perfect.
Not the cleaned-up.
Not the already-holy.
The world.
We are not just here to be saved.
We are not just here to be healed.
We are not just here to sit comfortably in our faith.
We are here on purpose and on mission.
And sometimes the most powerful act of evangelism isn’t a sermon…
It’s patience.
It’s kindness.
It’s forgiveness.
It’s choosing not to keep score.
It’s loving when the world says someone is unlovable.
Something else that hit me hard this week was this truth:
My reaction to people could be the very thing that shifts the direction of their life.
That’s heavy… but it’s also holy.
So today, I’m asking myself some honest questions:
Who do I struggle to love?
Who do I silently judge?
Who do I avoid instead of engage?
And then I’m asking God to help me love anyway.
Because love isn’t just something we receive at Christmas—
It’s something we are called to release every single day.
 
#dailybreadbykitty
Daily Inspiration from the Bible

given

 
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)
 
One of the most challenging parts of yesterday’s message (John 3:16) for me was this simple truth:
love naturally wants to give… but humans naturally want to receive.
If we’re being honest, selfishness comes pretty easy to all of us. We want to be noticed and appreciated. We want to be loved, understood, valued, and affirmed. None of that is wrong—but Christmas reminds us that real love always moves outward, not inward.
“Love is patient, love is kind…”
We hear these verses at weddings all the time. They sound beautiful. But in church this week, the pastor challenged us to read this passage a little differently—by replacing the word "love" with "Jesus".
Jesus is patient.
Jesus is kind.
Jesus does not envy.
Jesus is not easily angered.
Jesus keeps no record of wrongs.
Every single line fits Him perfectly.
Then came the harder challenge… to replace the word love with your own name.
Oof.
How accurate was that for you?
Because if we call ourselves Christians—if we truly mean “Christ-like”—then His love becomes the standard we are training for.
And I loved this distinction:
“I’m not trying… I’m training.”
Trying leaves room for quitting.
Training requires repetition, discipline, and intentional effort over time.
We don’t accidentally become more loving.
We don’t naturally default to kindness.
We don’t drift into patience.
We train for it.
And that training almost always shows up in the way we give:
Giving grace instead of snapping back
Giving time instead of excuses
Giving forgiveness instead of bitterness
Giving encouragement instead of criticism
Every time we choose to give instead of take, we look a little more like Jesus.
Christmas itself is proof of this truth. God didn’t seek something from us—He gave something to us. Love didn’t come demanding… it came offering.
 
#dailybreadbykitty
Daily Inspiration from the Bible

unearned

 
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
- John 3:16 (NIV)
 
This week, I attended a new church, and the sermon touched me so deeply that I wanted to carry part of it into this week’s “daily bread” as we continue in this Christmas season, so here we go!
Have you ever noticed how deeply wired we are to earn things?
We earn paychecks, trust, respect.
We even feel like we have to earn love.
From a young age, we are taught that good behavior gets rewarded and bad behavior gets consequences. That thinking sneaks its way into our relationship with God, too—sometimes without us even realizing it. We start to believe that if we “do enough,” if we pray more, read more, mess up less… then God will love us more.
But Christmas tells a completely different story.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…”
Because God loved, God gave.
There is nothing in that verse that says we deserved it or that we earned it.
Nothing that says we worked our way into His love.
He loved first. And He gave because of that love.
In church, the pastor described God’s love like a wave pool, not an endless pool. An endless pool requires constant effort—constant swimming just to stay in place. But a wave pool? You can rest and still be carried. God’s love doesn’t require you to keep fighting to stay afloat. It comes to you. Again and again. Steady. Constant.
And here’s the part that really gets me…
God loves you the same whether you feel like a “perfect Christian” or a total hot mess. His love does not rise and fall with your performance. It doesn’t fluctuate with your bad days, your doubts, your mess-ups, or your fears.
Jesus is the visible picture of God’s invisible love.
The manger was love wrapped in flesh.
The cross was love poured out completely.
You don’t have to earn that.
You just have to receive it.
And that, honestly, might be one of the hardest things we ever do.
 
#dailybreadbykitty
Daily Inspiration from the Bible

 

still thankful

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
- Colossians 3:17 (NIV)
 
November is set aside as the month for giving thanks… but thankfulness should not stop in November.
In the past, many of my Facebook friends (myself included) have participated in the tradition of “30 Days of Thankful,” where you post one thing every day for the entire month of November that you are specifically thankful for. It’s always pretty cool to see what people share.
Over the years, during Thanksgiving dinners at my house, we’ve gone around the table and said what we were thankful for—sometimes even putting a twist on it by going through the alphabet. (And let me just say… how many things are you grateful for that start with the letter X?!)
All in all, we should be thankful every day.
For everything.
And we should give thanks to God for each and every possible thing in our lives—no matter how big or how small.
I once saw a sign that said, “What if we woke up today with only the things we thanked God for yesterday?”
That one stopped me in my tracks.
Thankfulness has a way of shifting our perspective. It reminds us that even in the middle of busy schedules, financial stress, grief, exhaustion, and uncertainty—God is still moving, still providing, still faithful. Some days gratitude flows easily. Other days, we have to look a little harder for it. But when we choose gratitude, it softens our hearts and steadies our spirits.
I am thankful for so much.
And today, I am especially thankful for the words God gives me to share with others in this space—whether you are reading this through email or on my blog. You are part of my gratitude story.
Let thankfulness be something that carries us through December, through Christmas, and into every season that follows.
 
#dailybreadbykitty
Daily Inspiration from the Bible

more than wrapped packages

 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

- 2 Corinthians 9:7 (NKJV)
 
Do you remember the best gift that you ever received?
If you ask a child, they might tell you the latest gift that every kid wants.
If you ask a teenager, they might talk about the hottest new phone.
If you ask a young adult, they might mention a car or a job.
If you ask a middle-aged person, they might say their family.
If you ask an elderly person, you might hear about how blessed they were throughout their lifetime.
It’s funny how that answer changes as we grow, isn’t it?
The best gift any one of us has ever received, though, is Jesus.
We spend so much time this season thinking about gifts—buying them, wrapping them, worrying if they’re enough, wondering if we chose the “right” thing. But the greatest gift was never meant to fit inside a box. God didn’t just give us something… He gave us Himself.
And because He gave so freely, we are invited to give the same way. Not out of pressure. Not out of obligation. But out of joy. Out of love. Out of gratitude.
Sometimes our most meaningful gifts won’t be found under the tree. They will be found in our kindness, our generosity, our forgiveness, our time, and our compassion. When we give from the heart, we reflect the heart of the Giver.
 
#dailybreadbykitty
Daily Inspiration from the Bible