Advent Devotions - Dec 8

Today's devotional comes courtesy of Goshen College. Today's scripture reading is Luke 3:1-6.

1In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4As 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.
5Every 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,
6and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

As we learned yesterday, John was a solitary man, who was used of God to bring people to Christ. He was the forerunner to Christ Jesus.

He was a man who lived in the wilderness, and when God's word came to him, he left that wilderness to proclaim "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins".

I can imagine, as can the authour of this devotional, that people didn't want to change.

I imagine they were reluctant to remodel the topography of their homeland, of their heart, of their mind. There's pain in change, especially when you're quite content with the way things are. But Luke 3 makes it quite clear that the way things were was not fit for the Lord. Roads had to be straightened and mountains of pride, bitterness and envy had to come down to prepare for his coming.

People don't like change. They like things to stay the same. Can't say I blame them. I'm the same way. Making changes is hard. But when God says change...we have to change. It's just the way it is. And we can keep ourselves prepared for change. We can focus on what we need to do, so that when change comes, or is called for, we are ready to meet the challenge.

We can, right now, prepare our hearts. We can remember when "the Savior first met us on our own turf, in our personal wilderness".

Christ has come, and in fact, he is coming.
Use these days of Advent to prepare your heart and mind for his arrival.