Get Ready
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“Are you ready for Christmas?”
It’s a famous line that you hear with increasing frequency as the days get shorter and the 25th of December draws closer. Christmas is an important time and we want everything to be just right. But long before we were thinking about preparing for Christmas, God had a plan to prepare us.
Before the Messiah was born, before the angel announced to Mary that she had found favor with God, before the Holy Spirit conceived a child within her, we are told the story of John the Baptist.
Life Lesson: Biblical perspective on the end times
Experience It: Living in the power of the Holy Spirit
His birth was foretold by an angel. His father was struck mute because of his unbelief. His conception was miraculous in the sense that his parents were both well along in years and his mother was barren, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit from birth. All these details were orchestrated by God because He had a unique task for John.
Listen to what the angel prophesied about John: “Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:16, 17, NIV).
John’s role in God’s great story was to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. His calling was to help people get ready. They were not supposed to be ready to simply celebrate the coming of the Messiah but ready to receive the Messiah as Lord.
Are you ready? Has your disobedient heart been turned to the wisdom of the righteous? Have you acknowledged your failings and accepted the salvation Jesus offers? Are you ready for the day when Jesus will return?
Our gracious God and Savior, turn my heart back to You. I want my heart to be ready for You.
Questions: What does being ready for the Messiah mean to you? How does this affect how you look at getting ready for Christmas?
About the Author Suzanne Benner
Tags: angel, birth, Christmas, disobedient, Holy Spirit, israel, Jesus, John the Baptist, mary, Messiah, salvation, Suzanne Benner
3 Responses to “Get Ready”
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I hear you sister. I agree whole heartedly. God sent Jesus GREATEST gift [of salvation] that we remember HIS birth and not all the other stuff that side tracks so many.
My views about “Christmas” are only understood by the devoutest of believers. To me it is one of the most outrageously commercialized “holidays” of the year! i work as a cashier in a very popular dept store and i see one sad or bitter face after another when they have to pay for their purchases! Jesus’s death is more valuable than is birth and to keep going over and over HIM being the “baby” in the manger is ridiculous to me. As a follower of Christ i just don’t NEED all the hupala and expense. For me, it’s about Christ crucified not Jingle Bells and an elaborate dog and pony show. Please don’t take offense as i surely am not giving any.
Being ready for Christ, Messiah means life to me; waiting and watching, interpreting current events from a spiritual perspective and longing for HIS return; Looking at people and faces & wondering if they consider HIM in their daily lives; speaking out for HIM when I feel HIS prompts to; when I blow it asking HIS forgiveness, knowing that HE,and I refocus and start again.
As for getting ready for Christmas: it is the MOST joyous time of the year for me; I love to decorate the house placing HIM in prominence; filling our house w/family & friends & visiting others. It’s ALL about rejoicing in HIS birth and remembering that HE WILL come again!