In this Names of God reading plan, we are learning more about God by studying the names given to Him in Scripture. Rather than having our writers share their own reflections on these passages, we’ve instead provided research-rich content to aid in your study of each day’s featured name of God, including the background of the name(s), a brief explanation of the character of God emphasized by the name(s), and a reflection question to help you dig deeper into the text.
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God With Us
Immanuel (Hebrew), Immanuel (Greek)
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 7:13-17, Matthew 1:18-25, Matthew 28:19-20, John 1:10-18, Revelation 21:3
Description
The name Immanuel, or “God is with us,” appears in the book of Isaiah in key prophecies predicting the coming of the Messiah. The name carries a sense of nearness, including intimate knowledge of the needs, struggles, and hopes of humanity. When Isaiah prophesies about the virgin birth, he says that her child will be called Immanuel. This is not a proper name as much as it is a description of what the Messiah would be like.
In Matthew, an angel tells Joseph to name the child Jesus, because “He will save His people from their sins” (Mt 1:23). This name describes what Immanuel would do. Together, the names Immanuel and Jesus mean “God will be with His people and He will save them from their sins.” God saves His people and is close to them.
Emphasis
God’s nearness to and presence with His people
Reflection
What does this name teach me about God?
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93 thoughts on "God With Us"
That his presence is always with us
The name Immanuel shows his nearness to and presence with us. He has an “intimate knowledge of the needs, struggles, and hopes of humanity.”
‘Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel. – Isaiah 7:14
This is one of my favorite verses in Scripture. The promise of a coming child who will go on to be, the promised King. One named God With Us, a near and intimate God who knows his children.
Nothing better than the presence of God!
It teaches me about who is He and what He will do for me.
God is always with us. Hallelujah!
in Any time I am never alone.
This teaches me that He is present, He is near, He is personal. He did not just remain looking from where He was but He came down, let sin touched Him as clean as He is and as dirty as sin is He let it touch Him just to meet us where we are.
God is with us-His proximity is always close.
Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world!
God is very involved in my life!
God with us- this means so much to me not only now in a time of such uncertainty, but always, when times were good, when I’ve felt invincible and strong He was always with me. I find such peace knowing that He is not only with me but that He goes before me. He makes my path straight so I know that everything will work out for the good. Thank You Jesus ❤️
Thank you for being a God that chooses to be near his people. thank you for residing with me so I can have rest and confidence in who you say you are.
God is always near, the one who created the incredible and complex world we live in also created an intricate and intentional plan for my life.
This is amazing! God is such a loving and caring God, he loves us so dearly that he plans out his desire so intricately for us.
Although God is Lord and above all else, He chose to become close to us—to be personal and intimate with us. What an incredible truth and comfort to know that He is always with us.
I think it is amazing how Jesus was prophesied from the very beginning! We get to experience His presence and closeness in such a way that directly affects our daily lives. I am so thankful to know I am a child of God according to John 1:10-18
I’m thankful that God is with me always.
It’s amazing that even in Jesus’ ministry on earth, we see that He chose to associate himself with sinners. The Pharisees didn’t understand this because they thought surely God Almighty would never associate with sinners. However the irony is if they just studied the name of Immanuel given in the Old Testament (something these religious leaders would’ve been very very familiar with), they would have understood. God with us. US. Beings consumed in sin desperate to get help. He came to help us not to shun us. It’s amazing! I hope we all let the gravity of this miracle sink into our lives.
He knows how desperate all of humanity needs him & he will never leave us. We will always have his love
That He is true to His word when He said that He would NEVER leave me or forsake me! N E V E R. ❤️
From before time, God was always planning on being with us. Jesus was always planning to come and save us. Who am I to ever think that God is far from me, when the core of His nature is to know all about me in an intimate only He can. Being a born-again follower of Christ means I have the Holy Spirit in me…God is NEVER far from me!
Immanuel. God with us. This is His ultimate promise to humanity. A promise embedded in each page of His Word, one which manifests itself as the Holy Spirit & became flesh & dwelt among us as Jesus Christ. What a profound & reckless expression of love – that a King would step down from His throne, into the dirt of the earth to dwell with His Beloved. He is closer than the air that we breath & the blood flowing through our lungs. His wrap-around Presence is not just an add-on or an extra benefit of aligning ourselves with Him but it is literally the essence of His Name. Immanuel – what a gift ✨✨✨
Thank you God for loving me/us so much that Jesus came into the world to be with us and save us. Help me to always remember that through Jesus, that you understand how I feel and what I’m struggling with. Thank you for calling me your child.
“for God so loved” is mind blowing. To think that a holy, righteous, just God desires to be close to us, wants us to want Him and then makes a way for us to become His and to know Him fully is overwhelming. There are times I weep at this outpouring of His love. How could He love me so much that He would leave His throne, live among and be rejected by His creation then crucified? If sacrificing my son MADE people go to heaven I may consider it. But I could NEVER sacrifice my son to give someone the choice of choosing Him and eternal life. How much love, what a deep desire to be with us and to have us to spend eternity with Him as His own!! God help me to love like you. Help me to never take for granted what You have done, and help me to continually and urgently point everyone to the Savior.
AMEN. Your comment gave me a perspective I had never considered before now. Thank you.
We can’t run away when we feel unworthy, nor can we escape His presence when we feel just not good enough. Thank you, Lord, for your love and grace and constant pursuit of Your children.
I thank God for KNOWING He will NEVER leave or forsake us! ❤️
That He would CHOOSE to be near and present with me……..I bow in worship and praise.
❤️
That He would CHOOSE to be human and present
It teaches me that when I believed in Him and called him King of kings and Lord of lords, he is with me forever. A lot of times when I don’t “feel” his presence or think of him I think he isn’t with me. But He tells me in his holy word that he will never leave me. When I feel like dry bones in my faith, he is holding onto me. He knows my every need and wants me to need him as much as he wants me, not because he is needy but because he is the only one who can set me free of it all, protect me, love me fully, give me grace, and understand what I’m going through I what I need, by his plans.
In times of loneliness or failure, Immanuel. In times of fear or depravity, Immanuel. In times of victory and glory, Immanuel. It presses so much harder to have a holy temple because he’s WITH US. To live a life worthy of him and to also know he’s never left, GODS WITH US, Immanuel.
❤️❤️
Love that, especially those first few sentences. That was a great way to express it.
I love that even though I don’t understand the ways of God, He loves me and wants to be near me and he sent Jesus to be with us and save us.
My deepest joys- He knows them, my deepest fears- He understands them. He has walked a human life full of discomfort and pain and knows what it’s like to yearn for the Father, especially when He feels far away (or like He has forsaken us). He is understanding and empathetic, He sees the best and worst parts of our innermost being and still He chooses to be with us, and even more He chose our worst parts over His life so that we may come before the throne in His forgiveness so that we can still be with Him. Immanuel, God is with us! Is and was and will be!
From the beginning of creation in the Garden of Eden, God’s desire was to be near us and with us. My feeble mind can not comprehend why He wants to be close to me when I am so unworthy of His great love. Sin created a barrier or chasm between us and God and Jesus was the remedy to the closeness that God desired. The blood of Jesus (God with Us) covers our sin so that God can be in our presence even though we are prone to sin. Jesus left his throne at the right hand of God to dwell with us and show us how to live. Our faith in the virgin birth, sinless life, crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus are required for our sins to be forgiven. We must believe in all parts of Jesus’ story in order to understand the GREAT desire that God had to be close to us. For God so loved the world that he gave his ONLY son so that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. John 3:16-17
God has always wanted to be close to us, and He showed that in a physical way through His son the Lord Jesus- even through the meaning of His name He is declaring that He is with us!!
God is always near and He is going to save us!
I pray that the young girl in Charlotte NC who lost her baby in flooding from the aftermath of hurricane Florence would have a deep, overwhelming, and ever abiding knowledge of Immanuel, God with us.
Suffering today. Woke up remembering the suffering of Jesus. Comforted knowing he intercedes for me and the Spirit is with me. Thanks be to God
As we’ve been reading/discussing, God is mighty enough that he could have saved his people from a distance. But he chose to be WITH US so that we could see him saving us as clear as day!…and they/we still did not recognize Him.
But he is still with us! May we have the humility, eyes to see and ears to hear Truth when He stands before us today.
He is here. He is near. GOD is intimately close & interested in relationship WITH US.
“Love is here
Love is now
Love is pouring from His hands
From His brow
Love is near
It satisfies
Streams of mercy flowing from His side”
I love this thought, Georgie!
I needed this reminder that God is with me always – that He will never leave me. Those times that I feel alone are because I have drifted from Him.
Jesus walked with us on Earth and knows the struggles of humanity! This is just another facet of our God’s everlasting desire to be with us and love us! He wants to hold us close and that for me is so comforting!
I love how today’s reading and scriptures emphasizes that fact that Jesus and God are one. Although it is hard to wrap our minds around it, and quick for us to forget that God himself gave himself for our sins, today’s scriptures confirms to us that Jesus was here before humans, during, dwelling with us in flesh and then and spirit and will remain forever. AMEN. How great is our God!
I love in Matthew where Jesus says SURELY I am with you always. In a season of very little hope and a lot of failure the enemy seeks to dispel that belief. God remind me that that Jesus is Immanuel. He has saved me from my sins but is also here with me NOW, able to save me and comfort me and be with me and understand my every thought and emotion NOW!
❤️
I love so much that we have a God that cares enough to be near to us. He didn’t have to do that, but He WANTS nearness. Every single step, He wants to be right with me. That’s such profound love, thank you Lord!!
Amen!
What can I say that hasn’t already been said below.. Bless you sisters…
God with us…
Forever thankful that He is ever present whatever the situation or circustance..
Thank you Lord God. Thank you..
God with us and God saves us…Immanuel…a name above all names ❤️
This name is one of my favorites because it reminds me that even when things are tough and it feels like God is miles away, He is not. He is with me and won’t ever leave. He knows and understands exactly what I am going through because He is right next to me and in my midst. I am not forgotten because I am His. While God is the King of the universe, He still wants to be close to me and love me.
This name makes me want to cry for happiness. “God is with His people and He will save them from their sins”. How beautiful is that!
❤️
Immanuel teaches me that no matter where I am and what path I am walking, God is with me at every step. This brings overwhelming peace and serenity to all who know this truth.
It is good to what God is saying , not opinion, feelings, etc. this gives security joy and peace
God is with us! His dwelling place is with us.
Immanuel, God will be with me, close by through the good times and the bad and hard times, through the happy times and the sad times, through the easy times and the rough times. No the circumstances in my life God is with me.
God being close to me means that “He will wipe every tear from our eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” He’s close like a husband – physically close, spiritually close, emotionally close. I can never be separated from Him, and I’m so glad to be this close to Him.
He will never leave me nor forsake me. I am completely known and completely understood by Him. He knows my needs, and only He can fulfill them.
For some of us, when you are in the much of life, it’s so hard to see and understand that God is with us. I hope that the next time, I get weighed down, that I remember, God is with me, always
How sweet of our God to name himself through his people “God with us” and then prove it in the ways we need. As humans and his creation, he knows that we need experience to deepen faith— he proved he was with us physically in the form of Jesus and then with us again by his powerful Spirit later. He has proven and is with us in all the ways we need. Thank you, Jesus!
“God is with us”, first appears in prophecies in Isaiah, meaning God is with us not just now but in the future and with them in the prophecies of the past. It also mainly refers to Jesus, meaning He is intimate in the struggles and needs of being human. Isn’t it so amazing that even the that God is referenced as are deeply intentional?
Once I have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior He is with me. Even when it doesn’t feel like it. Having that awareness makes the tough times a little easier.
The name Immanuel demonstrates to me that God is faithful and that he’ll never lead our side. He is both the God of Grace and Faithful
It teaches me that HE IS near me. HE is with me wherever I go. And is even a greater reminder to me as I walk through this valley that HE has never left me and he never will.
This name…it is a reminder that we serve a God who cares. In our darkest hour, the sweetest comfort often comes in the form of a loved one who sits beside us and offers the gift of their presence. That is what God does for us! He sits with us, He walks with us, He weeps with us, He IS with us. He enfolds us in His love and grace and His spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. How beautiful is this?
It reminds me that I have taken that Name for granted. So many times i take for Granted that Jesus chose to dwell with us and that Holy Spirit is WITH us daily! That Immanuel means we are never alone, it means we have a friend and comforter a healer, Gods power and protection with us always!
I am the second oldest of eight siblings. It was easy to feel overlooked in my childhood home. My high school graduation class numbered 1033 and I had one friend. In my early adult years I pursued my career singularly focused, walking the treadmill of success. Praise God I came to know Jesus and loneliness was vanquished. As I studied His Word and developed a relationship with Him, I knew I had a life companion Who would never disappoint, Who would always be fully present, Who would always care for me. I’m blessed now with family and friends whom I love and who love me and, more importantly, love Jesus. I have had dark nights of the soul and have endured profound betrayal but my God has been with me in the midst of it all. I am comforted in my older years that God is with these family and friends as their savior, Lord and life companion as well. I am comforted that He will never leave them though one day I will. I pray they stay close to Him, trust His Word and know He is always right there. We will one day be together for eternity. Hallelujah! How I desire this relationship for many more and so my prayers are for other family and friends to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus also. That is my daily prayer. (and I pray for Hurricane Florence to decrease in speed and strength, that there would be no loss of life and that property and possessions would be preserved as well. I pray for protection and safety for all the first responders. God, please tell Florence “Stop! Be still!” Amen)
Agreeing with you in prayer for safety, protection, and provision for those in the path of the hurricane. My son will be one of the first responders for search and rescue efforts. God is with him and all who call on His name.
I just read a few days ago how Jesus spoke “Peace Be Still” to the storm when his disciples were in despair, His word to them before they had gotten in the boat had been “We are going to the other side.” God with them had promised safety and deliverance. I don’t know what He desires to do with Florence and it’s consequences but I “Amen” your prayer to God for deliverance and safety to His honor and glory!
The first prophesies about Jesus, describe him as God with us, and his last words on earth before being swept into heaven were a reminder that he is with us. What beautiful bookends to Jesus’s time on earth and what a powerful reminder of why he came! I’m praying today that I remember I am not asked to walk alone.
❤️
May I remember I am not asked to walk alone and may my life demonstrate to others what it means to know Immanuel so they desire to have a relationship with him too.
The first prophesies about Jesus, describe him as God with us, and his last words on earth before being swept into heaven were a reminder that he is with us. What beautiful bookends to Jesus’s time on earth and what a powerful reminder of why he came! I’m praying today that I remember I am asked to walk alone.
God with us! As I pondered all that Immanuel means and brings, my thoughts went to my sincere desire for my husband’s full recovery. Set-backs and medical updates can and have brought me disappointment because I hope for more and still, fully believe that God can restore Dennis completely. Next, my mind flashed to God’s desire for all, for me spiritually. He wants full restoration, and because He is with us, we can be fully restored and act from that vantage point. Oh, how often I forget that He is with me. How often I allow my sinful nature, pride, ego, and jealousy rule me. What level of disappointment does God feel toward my spiritual walk when I do not live, speak, and think in a manner that provides evidence that He is with me and can restore me daily?
Hi Kelly, you and Dennis continue to be in my prayers.
Thank you!!
In Immanuel we see the glory of God in grace upon grace and truth, as He draws near to us at the birth of Jesus, culminating in our dwelling with Him eternally in heaven.
And wants us to know him more. If he knows when a bird falls how much more does he know my struggles and pain. We can draw near to God and he will draw near to us.
We have a God that knows us intimately
God is near. May I claim to this hope today and always knowing my savior is with us
God is with US. Asking for prayers for NC and SC as this hurricane is heading this way!
Praying for you and all the others in that community. My inlaws and grandmother-in-law all live on the NC coast. My in-laws evacuated but grandma is in a nursing home and did not.
I was just praying that the women (men and families too) in the path of Florence would be able to find calm in this storm … in God’s promise that ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’
We are praying… LORD please help us…
❤️
Immanuel. God with US. What spoke to me about these passages is His Love. The Word become flesh and dwelt among us. He chose to come as the flesh and be amongst us. His love for us is so great!! And as He ascended, he gave us the promise of us Spirit. One of the truths that got me through cancer trratment, that gets me through each battle of fear and worry is the truth that Immanuel is with me. Where His presence is there is peace. He is the Prince of Peace.
How blessed are we that God”s very name proclaims that he is here with us on earth! Immanuel. God is with us. May I remember this on the days when it seems like He is far away and distant. The truth is that is is here with each of us.
I have access to God. He is right here with me. He’s not some distant, impersonal God that I have to appease. He is an intimate, personal God who knows me better than anyone else, yet still desires a relationship with me. He is Elohim – Creator, powerful, sovereign. He is Yahweh – covenantal, relational, intimate, personal. And He is Immanuel – God with us. I don’t have to go look for Him. He is right here with me every minute of every day. I am speechless at the wonder of it all.
❤️
It teaches me how awesome and caring He is for each of us. Not only did He make a way for us to spend eternity with Him, He came and did what we could not do on our own. He wants an intimate relationship with us, gives us His Holy Spirit to dwell in us, but He is still Holy and might to save us from our sins and just punishment. Who is like the Lord! This makes me want to fall more in love with Him and experience that closeness. The First 5 study’s key verse today Proverbs 31 Ministry was “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” That is a great invitation that won’t disappoint. He is always good, no matter what!