“‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’” Mark 1:3
“Are you ready for Christmas?” When someone asks you this question, what’s your first thought? Is it the tree and decorations? The shopping list? I would guess that most people when they are asked the question about Christmas readiness don’t default to thinking about their spiritual readiness to receive what Jesus might have for them in this season.
As I was reflecting on John the Baptist and the pronunciation to Zechariah, we know that John would prepare the way for the Lord, making straight paths for him. We have an ability to do the same thing in our lives! We have the ability to create and follow pathways and rhythms that help us connect with Jesus. Lynette wrote about preparing room and how God uses weird seasons to aid the process and I think Charles Wesley got it right in “Joy to the World” when he wrote “Let every heart prepare Him room.” Prepare (an action we take) Him (Jesus) room (intentional space).
Now, as a kid, my room was filled with junk. Hard to find any easy pathways there to anything, my bed, closet, always a challenge to get to because of the junk. Let me ask you, what is the room of your Christmas heart filled with? Is your heart filled with too much to do to create room for Jesus in this season? It’s easy to fill our hearts with too many good things and sometimes miss out on the best thing.
So, how do we “prepare Him room” this Christmas? Perhaps it involves less doing, and more be-ing. How can we practice be-ing this Christmas season?
- Preparing Him room this Christmas season may involve creating some intentional space for stillness and quiet so that you can listen. Maybe God’s trying to show you something in the stillness and quiet.
- Preparing Him room this Christmas season may involve creating some rhythms that involve intentionally focusing on Jesus. One of the practices that our staff has done over the past couple Advent seasons is fixed-hour prayer. Granted, this is possibly a bit easier when you work in a church environment but are there some intentional times you can take throughout the day to dedicate to the Lord?
- Preparing Him room may include taking a moment each week to worship the Lord with a particular song each week.
May we be able to see that sometimes all we have to offer is simply ourselves. Let’s prepare him room and prepare our hearts this Christmas to stop doing and start being with God!
Pastor Seth Redden
High School Ministries