"... Prepare the way of the Lord; Make his paths straight..."
When I was young we lived on a dirt road. Every Saturday afternoon the road grater would move deliberately up and down the road, flattening out the bumps and valleys, so they were a smooth, solid surface.
Our pathways are random. They rise high with attitudes of pride and arrogance, they sink low in willful sin and emotional distress. There are piles of stones here, and murky mud-puddles of water there. They are overgrown with vines and untrimmed hedges and, in places, have become quite darkened indeed.
"Make his paths straight..."
We may view our task with dismay. "How am I to clear this path?"
While God calls us to "make his paths straight," to lay aside the wicked devices of our hearts - to level mountains of pride or fill our hellish holes through repentence - he also provides the wherewithal to make that happen. God works with us in the straightening of our paths. He wants us to recognize Jesus at the end of the road and gives us the tools needed to bind and to loose, to forgive, to be delivered and healed.
True, we have our work cut out for us. (He may provide the shovel and the materials, but we need to roll up our sleeves and make it happen.) These are hard choices to make. But, as we seek to make his paths straight, pure, and holy, he instantaneously equips us in the doing of the thing.
We may think we can level this mountain on our own. But we can't - or bring this darkness into the light, but we can't. In his mercy, God has set both his unwavering standard of holiness and provided the Holy Spirit as the Chief Engineer in this project.
Call out to him. Share with him your intent to prepare a straight Way in your heart for the coming of your Lord, and he will help you prepare the way for the Lord.
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