Straight and Smooth

Thursday greetings,

There are 17 days until Christmas, and I am almost ready!  All my decorations are up, and I have made a list of foods I need to purchase for our Christmas morning breakfast.  I am also keeping Amazon Prime busy, and several times a week our mail carrier treks it up to my door and drops off packages.  

It's also been fun receiving cards from friends and seeing how their children have grown, as well as sending out my own cards. In a few days I have an outing planned with a group of us girls who have committed to regularly getting together to pray for our President, and I also have a Christmas luncheon to go to.  Plus, I have to practice a little holiday presentation that Jorge and I are doing for the benefit of our family (all I can tell you is that Jorge will be wearing a sombrero). And well, just like you, there's a lot going on right now as I prepare for Christmas...

But wait a minute! I feel as though I am leaving something out…

Oh No!!! IT’S JESUS!

“Prepare for God’s arrival! Clear away the obstacles; Make the road straight and smooth. Isaiah 40:3."

The most important thing I need to do during this time of the year  -  and always  -  is to prepare for God’s arrival.  The way the word “prepare” is used in this verse means it’s an ongoing activity.  We don’t just prepare once.  We prepare every single day.  But I'll admit, the busyness of the season has kept me from spending more time with Him.  How ironic!  He is the "reason for the season," but in the huffing and puffing of getting stuff done, sometimes I have overlooked Him.  

It's important to clear away whatever is standing in the way of God getting to us.  And the Bible gently reminds us to clear away, delete, and purge any and all hindrances and hurdles that block our relationship with God. 

We all have a say in how easy or how hard we make it for God to get to us.  And I hope we all say “YES!” to making it straight and smooth because that's the fastest way for Him to get to us.     

PRAYER: Dear Lord, How wonderful that right now as we pray, we are preparing for You in our lives.  Come to us, precious Lord, and bless us and our families.  Grant us wisdom, health, peace, joy, and hope.  In Christ’s name, AMEN!

The Perfect Seed~

Greetings, all you precious saints of the Lord!

Today we continue with our lessons in farming.  The most important thing to remember is that God has given 

each of us the perfect seed; if we plant it in rich earth, it guarantees a bumper crop!  What is this seed?  

Luke 11:8 “The seed is the Word of God.”

God’s Word needs to be planted and take root in our lives because, “There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing us the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us (2 Timothy 3:16-17).”

After reading these two verses I realize that there’s a lot at stake.  I want – make that I need – to make sure that the soil of my heart is receptive to receiving God’s Word because when my faith is optimized, when I have all the truth I need to address the problems in my life, when my hard-headed and prideful ways get in the way of enjoying relationships and God gently nudges me to make things right, when I love the way God wants me to love, and when I am able to serve my family and others, well then, that’s when life is joyful and worth living!

The key is to plant in rich, fertile soil because while God offers the same seed to everyone, where it’s planted is quite another.  This paragraph from yesterday’s DEVO reveals some hindrances to that seed being successfully planted:

Birds eat up the seeds, seeds land in gravel

and don’t grow for a lack of good roots, and

seeds fall on weeds and try to grow but those

weeds strangle them. 

How do we prepare the soil to avoid these pitfalls?  We will continue with our farming series next week, but in the meantime, let’s ask God to begin the process by protecting the seed He has given us from those hungry pesky birds and by gently removing any gravel or weeds that might be growing in our gardens.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, So much gets in the way of Your life-saving, joy-giving Word from taking root and growing into a beautiful crop of blessings.  Help us today to be receptive and ready to all the good You want to do in us and to all the good You want us to do.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN~