Advent at Ararat - Day 15: The Promise cannot be delivered where there is no room.

“And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭2‬:‭7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Many sermons, devotions, and lessons, have focused on the last part of our opening scripture for today. The point is made that the reason Jesus’ birth happened in a stable was because there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn. Then the question is presented: “Do you have room in your life for Jesus?”

Now, that question is often met with responses pointing to church attendance, prayers before meals, or just simply believing that Jesus exists along with excuses about being so very busy.

What I want to do is to point out a few things and then allow you to ask yourself that question again.

As we learned earlier on, Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem because of a required census. As we know, this census was imposed on all the Roman citizens. Therefore, it followed that the inns were overwhelmed with people looking for a place to stay while fulfilling their obligation to the government.

In other words, the innkeeper didn’t turn Mary and Joseph away because they were rejecting them as people, or even because they didn’t have compassion on them. The fact was, the innkeeper, in attempting to accommodate a high demand, seemingly had no choice but to turn them away.

Face it, life happens. And with our daily grind comes myriad demands on our time, attention, and money. Now, the Lord can strengthen us to do what we need to do; He can even help us to do what we do expediently and to be good managers of all our resources. But, the fact remains that there are just so many hours in the day, a limited amount of personal resources, and a limit to the number of things on which we can focus at one time.

In order for Mary and Joseph to have had a room in the inn, someone else would’ve had to have been kicked out. What I’m saying is that if most of what we have in terms of time, energy, finances, attention, etc., is taken up by other things such that the room we have for the Lord couldn’t even hold a broom, then something’s got to be kicked out.

Obviously, we all have responsibilities we must meet; the Lord never calls for us to shirk our personal responsibilities. But the fact is, many people will somehow make room for the things that are really important to them. So, when we find ourselves having no time, no space, and nothing to give to the Lord, we have inadvertently given a commentary on what we hold dearest to us.

For today meditate on how the use of your time, attention, and personal resources does or does not reflect that you have room for the Lord in your life.

The Lord truly wants to come into our lives and abide with us. Indeed, His abiding Presence in us by way of the Holy Spirit is the only way in which we can be transformed into His very image. Additionally, it is the only way we can access the many great and precious promises the Lord has given to us.

So let’s pose that first question again, but in a slightly different way: “Does the way you use all of your resources (time, attention, money, mental energy, etc.) indicate that the Lord has room to be born into your life, or must His glorious gift be relegated to be realized somewhere else?”

Peace to you.

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