Christmas Family Devotional 2025, Week Two: God Keeps His Promises – “The Plan All Along”

Week Two of Four

God Keeps His Promises – “The Plan All Along”

Scripture: Matthew 1:21–23 

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. … and they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).”

Long before Jesus was born- in fact all the way back to the beginning of history- in the book of Genesis in Chapter 3, God promised that He would send someone to rescue people from their sin. He himself would pay the penalty we should be paying for its consequences. God himself loved us so much that He decided to fix the problem. All through history, people waited and even at times wondered if God would really follow through with what He said He would do. Those people whose hearts trusted God pleased Him, and they were seen as being in right standing with God even before Jesus showed up on the earth.

True to His word, Jesus the perfect sacrifice for our sin, did show up and right on time. His name “Immanuel” means God with us. That’s huge! It means God didn’t just send someone else to clean us our big mess; He came and did it Himself. No one else in Heaven or on Earth could do what Jesus accomplished! Jesus didn’t show up just to be a nice teacher or do miracles. He came to take away sin—the stuff in our hearts and the bad choices we make that separates us from God. He alone bring us back into a right relationship with Him.

God’s plan was always to rescue, not reject. That’s who He is: a Father who keeps His promises and does whatever it takes to bring His children home. What it took was living a perfect life and then going even further to die on a cross for our sin. Who else could have done that? No one!

Discussion Questions

• What does it mean to you that God is “with us”? How does this change or affect the way you live?
• Can you think of a time when it was hard to trust someone to keep a promise? How is God different?
• Has God given you a promise from the Bible? Have you seen it happen yet? How do you feel about that?
• How could you reflect God’s faithfulness by being someone others can count on?

Prayer

Stop and Thank God for who He is and what He accomplished. Tell Him the things that are on your heart- what you want and need from Him. Then tell Him the things you've done wrong or some of the bad thoughts you've had. Ask Him to forgive you and to give you strength to live in a way that pleases Him.

(All content copyright Mark Taft.)