Isaiah 40:
3-5; “A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for
our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and
hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a
plain. And
the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it
together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
One
of life’s ironies; we all want great roads; smooth and well maintained and
groomed. We want them always ready to
drive on at a moment’s notice we want to be able to get in our car or pickup or
SUV or whatever you drive and go where we want.
This is what we want yet we have no patience for road construction. There are few portions of our lives which are
universally despised, and this is one of them.
Even if we complained about the condition of the road and wondered when
they would fix it, we complain about fixing the road.
We know that road construction is
necessary. Often travelled roads wear
out. The change of population or the
introduction of new industry can mean a small country road needs to become a four-lane
highway and that four-lane highway might become an eight-lane expressway. Roads need a lot of work; constant attention
or they will fail at a critical time.
Our Scripture verses talk about road
maintenance. We all understand this
passage is about making straight the way of the Lord. We all understand it as a reference to John
the Baptist and the preaching of repentance.
We like to think that this means that God will come and remove all the
boulders in our lives, in our path to the Lord.
We like to think that God will make our travel smooth and free
sailing.
The truth is that it is not our path that
needs fixing it is our life. It is our
life, which reflects our faith; that needs to be under constant repair. There are times when we need to be built up
when we are low, experiencing life’s struggles.
There are times when the hills must be shaved down when maybe we feel we
are capable of aiding in our salvation, or we have the attitude of the Pharisee
who was “thankful he wasn’t a sinner”.
Perhaps there are times when we engage in hidden sins or acts of selfishness,
and we have to have the rough places smoothed out or the crooked areas
straightened.
We often don’t like it. We rarely like it when it is our sins which
need to be corrected. We rarely enjoy it
when God corrects our lives. Yet it is
vital that we be cleansed of our sin. We
need to be prepared for when the time will come when we must not crumble, when
our faith will be tested the most. When
we trust ourselves, we will crumble but if we keep our faith in God and his
promises of salvation and of the forgiveness of sins, we can stand tall and
strong. The devil will not be able to
attack us. Prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight his ways. It might not
always be what we want or enjoy but it is necessary that we be shaped and
molded by God into the disciples which he wants us to be.
Dear Father in heaven, we give you thanks for
making your ways straight in our lives.
At those times we feel lost and injured but you are with us giving us
comfort when we need and poking our conscience when we need it. Continue to bless us with your grace and
mercy. In Jesus’ precious name we pay,
amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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