Devotion - 3 December - Prepare the Way

A brief prayer is offered that you can add to your daily prayers this week. We enter the season of Advent with the notion of being prepared. The scripture is from our Sunday Service Bulletin.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

² As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
    who will prepare your way,
³ the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
   ‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
    make his paths straight,’”

⁴ John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶ Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. ⁷ And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ⁸ I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Some of us really, really prepare for Christmas. There are inside decorations, outside decoration, cards to mail, gifts to buy, all kind of celebrations to attend, what kind of food to bring—you get the idea. Sometime all the preparations can get in the way of what the message of Christmas really should be. In our text today Mark is telling about the preparation message in Isaiah and the, then, current day message of John the Baptizer. You probably already know the story of how God prepared the way for the birth of the Christ child in the lowly manger.  Today as we anticipate the upcoming celebration of baby Jesus’ birth, let us prepare our hearts to receive our King. We need to personally prepare the way, don’t we?