Wonderful Counselor

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

Have you ever been with your friends or even in a crowd somewhere and felt lonely? Above all the voices and activity, your loneliness spoke louder and it drowned out the warm chatter of your friends or the music blaring from the sound system at the outdoor concert. You could only hear how you felt.

Christmas can inflame the loneliness we are prone to feel when we’ve experienced any type of loss, be it loss of a loved one; employment; friendship or romantic relationship; or even loss of a dream. It grips our heart and thoughts in its cold, icy clutch. We become helpless to pry its choking grip loose and we quickly succumb to its power.

Without knowing exactly when it happened, we’ve lost our smile. Losing our smile is nothing compared to losing our desire…for anything and everything. We are now completely void of any joy. Finally, the reality of our loneliness occludes our reality.

Man, feeling lonely can be such a debilitating emotion.  More dangerous than its debilitation though is it can leave us vulnerable to Satan’s lies and deception. I think loneliness makes the enemy’s “job” a lot easier. We’ve done half the work for him and now all he has to do is walk right in and start stirring the pot we’ve got simmering with his ladle of doubt.

Satan is always trying to make us question what God has said. Remember Adam and Eve and the apple? The snake asks, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”  Perhaps the enemy is trying to get you to doubt that Jesus is really Immanuel.

Once he gets you doubting he puts away the ladle of doubt and unsheathes the sword of deception. With this weapon, he deceives you into believing that you really are alone and not only are you alone, but you will forever be alone.

Isaiah 9:6 tells us that Jesus is a Wonderful Counselor.

In this verse, “Wonderful” literally means incomprehensible. “Wonderful” is a much weightier word than how we use it today. Isaiah was saying that Jesus will be beyond our understanding.

“Counselor” in ancient Israel meant wise king. So, Jesus is a wise king beyond our comprehension.

Doesn’t it seem incomprehensible to you that a king would leave his royalty to become a servant? But that’s exactly what God did when He took His first breath in that lowly stable in Bethlehem.

Our Wonderful Counselor knows all about us and that is what compelled Him to become a servant. He came to save us from ourselves by becoming like ourselves.

Still, Jesus is fully God. Since He is fully God, He knows about our loneliness. However, He is also fully man. Being fully man He has experienced our loneliness. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He asks Peter, James, and John to keep watch and pray lest they fall into temptation (which Peter certainly did when he cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant). Jesus was so aware of what was coming in the next few hours that anguish and dread overtook Him and He simply wanted to not be alone as He prayed to His Father asking Him to make another way.

Jesus knows you don’t want the circumstances you’re in now, and maybe like Him you asked God to make another way too, but He didn’t and here you are living a life you never asked for.

My dear friend, there have been times where I have felt loneliness in my bones and the only thing that has kept me from absolute destruction is the truth that God had a plan for Jesus’ life that included Calvary. The suffering of Calvary is beyond my comprehension, but there was a greater good God did through it. Our wise king is beyond our comprehension and I believe He is working a greater purpose through our suffering and our felt loneliness.

When our Wonderful Counselor left the opulence of Heaven, He stepped into our mess with a message—I’m here now.  You’re not alone.