Will the road for Jesus to your heart be smooth and straight this Christmas?

On Monday evening, December 2, Kathy and I had family and friends over for an evening meal. The conversation got around to some possible holiday activities in the coming weeks. As a group we all seemed to say, “After Thanksgiving my / our schedule gets really full!” You understand that our culture begins Christmas observance in earnest after Thanksgiving. Are you preparing for, are you getting ready for ChristMAS?

Maybe you have parties to attend. Have you written your Christmas cards, if you are sending cards this year? Maybe you have presents to buy. And if you give gifts, perhaps this will require figuring out some finances. Are you are traveling to spend some special time with family or friends? Do you need to buy tickets for the trip? Will you attend any Christmas or holiday concerts? Or, maybe you will do some Christmas cooking, make cookies or serve a big meal. Do you have groceries to buy?

I am doing something in today’s devotion I don’t usually do. For some devotions I share thoughts from the previous week’s sermon. However, I usually do not first share in my devotion what I hear God saying to me for the coming week, what I plan to preach about. That way folks in the congregation I am serving get “first crack” at those thoughts of faith. Nevertheless, today I am sharing first in this devotion important thoughts of faith I hear from my Lord , BEFORE my Sunday sermon. This coming week’s Gospel lesson speaks of John the Baptist. John’s message is preparation. John calls people to prepare for the coming of Jesus. God sent John to prepare people, not for ChristMAS, but for the coming of the CHRIST.

Listen to Luke 3. “2 . . . the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places shall become level ways, 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”’” (Luke 3:2-6)

Did you hear John’s message? “Prepare the way for . . . THE LORD!” The preparation John talked about did not happen through cards, or gifts, or meals. Though all these methods of celebration can point to and can celebrate God’s love in Jesus. According to the word of God which came to John, preparation for the Lord happens through preparing our hearts. God led John to call the people to “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” In the lives of those waiting for God’s promised Messiah, God calls them to prepare the way for this Savior by making a straight and smooth road to their hearts!

According to John, preparing for Jesus means repenting, admitting we have faults and failures, guilt and sin. Preparing for Jesus means confessing the truth that we need a Savior, and it means turning to Jesus, turning to God’s promised Messiah, turning to Christ and receiving the forgiveness only God can give.

The ChristMAS SEASON can be a busy time of year. Are you ready for the holiday? Perhaps not. But preparing for the celebration of Jesus’s birth, for CHRISTmas really means preparing for Christ. What plans do you have for worship, for confession, for turning again to our Lord in preparation for His coming to you? What plans do you have for turning your life to CHRIST’S love and forgiveness in faith? Will the road for Jesus to your heart be smooth and straight this year?