A Devo a Day: 1

Since the Christmas season lends itself to restless nights, wondering if you've shopped for everyone in your immediate family and schedule mastering with all of the events and holiday parties, I decided to write up a devotional a day to bring us (starting with me!) back to the reason for the season.

Just this morning I had the decision to roll out of bed and leap back into the maze of presents and wrapping paper at my bedside or to start my morning meeting with the Lord. Thankfully for the both of us, presents could wait.

Day 1:

Let's start in Luke chapter 13, verse 22:

The Narrow Way

²² And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. ²³ Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”
And He said to them, ²⁴ “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. ²⁵ When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ ²⁶ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ ²⁷ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ ²⁸ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. ²⁹ They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”



The narrow gate.

 

 

My Bible footnote says that the suggestion here is that we have to enter into salvation on God's terms. Those of us that seek to enter and are not able are those who seek entrance on their own terms. We seek to enter into God's presence and ultimately into His kingdom based off of our achievements or how many bad life choices we avoided in this life. But how true is it that God's terms are this: we come to know Him through our relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

There's a reason why Jesus says, "“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6 NKJV).

 

 



Another way of looking at the path now is like this:

 

 

 

What? But Jesus is in the way, the cross is in the way. No. Jesus is the way. The cross was Jesus' means to bridge the gap between humanity and God.

 

So how do we find the path? We find Jesus.

 

How do we follow the path? We follow Jesus.

 

In this holiday season when we could spend more of our time this Christmas break spending the money we've saved and baking and cleaning and staying busy, here's the synopsis of day 1 of devo time:

 

Slow down. Start your morning finding Jesus, following Jesus. I found him this morning in the Bible, you could find him in prayer or in singing worship while you do left over dishes. You could spend the entire Christmas break doing all of the things that can bring us close to people: baking with family or friends, having people over, giving out of love, but let's not neglect the relationship that this season is built around: the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Spend time with Him and you'll find that you're on the path that you were looking for all along.

 

He desires a relationship with you today.