Wonderful Counsellor (Dec 7)

“For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” Isaiah 9:6
There is a passage in Isaiah which often gets read at Christmas where Isaiah talks of a child who is to be born, and gives a variety of names by which the child will be known. We take this passage to be a prophecy about the Messiah the Israelites were waiting for, the Messiah we know is Jesus Christ, the son of God born to give us eternal life through faith in Him. So for the next few days we will look at these different names.
“And his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor”
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” Jeremiah 29:11
We worship the Wonderful Counsellor, the God of amazing plans, plans to give us a future and a hope. We see that in birth of Jesus. Without Jesus we are without hope. We are stuck with the scarlet stain of our sin, bound in chains, guilty, condemned. But God has plans to give us a future and a hope. Through the death of Jesus on the cross our chains are broken. We are washed white as snow. We are offered the secure hope of an eternal future in heaven when we put our trust in Jesus.
But God is not just concerned about our future. He has plans for us now in the present. Plans for welfare and not for evil. We worship the Wonderful Counsellor who guides us day by day, who leads us as we strive to follow Him, who has plans for us to be used to spread His glory on the earth and to play a part in telling others of the greatest story ever told – that God so loved the world that His Son was born as a baby and died on the cross that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Don’t live according to your own plans but listen to the plans of the Wonderful Counsellor and follow His plans this advent season and throughout the rest of your life!