He softens our hearts as we listen (Advent week 2 day 2).

We can often catch ourselves saying, “I just wish God would speak to me!” He has and He does. He is always speaking (even through His silence) and He is always at work (just not in ways that we might expect). Christmas is a grand testimony to the voice and activity of God, and yet it is easy to miss Him in the commotion of the season.

The reason that humility is foundational to our listening is because we must let go of our own perspectives and prejudices. We possess ways of thinking that cloud our ability to see God at work. Thomas Merton commented that there is a difference between looking and seeing. When we look, we have something in mind that we want to see. We’ve made up our mind about what we believe we need and only look for it. When we see, we are open to whatever it is that God brings before us. There is an openness and receptivity. Humility allows us to see rather than simply look, and consequently, we are able to see (listen to) God.

In Hebrews 3, God says, “If you hear my voice, don’t harden your heart” and the following verses describe a dynamic where God was speaking but the people didn’t hear:

“do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’” (Hebrews 3:8-10)

The writer of Hebrews is describing the people’s inability to listen to what God had been saying for all these years. What were the works they saw for forty years? It began with being delivered from slavery in Egypt and being delivered through the parting of the Red Sea. He miraculously provided water and daily bread. Even as they complained, He provided quail to eat. The list could go on, but it can definitely be said that God was at work! They could perceive (hear) but they didn’t get it (listen). It was an issue of the heart (“they always go astray in their heart”) that led to not knowing His ways.

In Isaiah 55:8, God says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.” This seems obvious enough but is there a reliable way forward? In the previous verses, God shares the foundation of this difference:

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live (Isaiah 55:1-3)

The water and the bread in these verses are God Himself. Relationship with Him is a gift (“without money and without price”) and is the only thing which will satisfy us. These words provoke questions: do I thirst and hunger for God? Or, am I hungry for that which does not satisfy? Our desires shape our hearts and consequently our ability to listen. I see what I desire. I hear what I want. The way that we hear God is by desiring Him. If I am seeking God but “listening” in a different language (desiring things other than Him), I will miss it when He is speaking. It would be like listening to the radio in a language not our own. We hear things but they don’t translate.

Set aside some time for quiet prayer and ask God to show you what you most desire. Likely, there is a mixture of things (some pure and some impure). Get a blank piece of paper and a pen. Ask Him to help you see those places in your heart where you desire to find satisfaction in things other than Him.  As the Father brings things to your mind, write them down. Finally, mentally walk through each thing and cross it out as you simply pray, “Father, I desire you more than this.”

End your time with this prayer of listening:

Father, help me to silence every creature, including myself. I want to listen to You as I hear your voice. Help me to learn stillness so that I might be attentive to Your good and gracious voice. As I hear, may I have the courage to follow Your heart from my heart. Thank you for desiring to do life with me.

He softens our hearts as we listen (Advent week 2 day 1).

There is a difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is when we are able to physically register that there is a sound in our environment. And, hearing may even extend to translating those sounds into some sort of meaning. Listening, however, occurs when we take those words to heart.

In Hebrews 3:7-8, there is a phrase that is repeated several times in the chapter. “Today, if you hear His voice, don’t harden your hearts.” In these words, we see the difference between and the important of hearing and listening. Hearing speaks of the content (“if you hear His voice”) and listening has to do with the heart (“don’t harden your hearts”). As we choose to listen, God softens our hearts. When we don’t listen, our hearts are hard or resistant to what God is saying.

Note of caution: we generally would not consider ourselves to be hard of heart. However, hardness of heart, or not listening to God, is seen as a real challenge in the Scriptures. Over and over, God implores with us to look at our hearts. Those who are committed and serious about God will tend to have all the right actions but not from heart (cf. Matthew 23:25-26, the outside of the cup is clean but the inside is full of greed and self-indulgence). Others may initially receive what is said but fail to listen amid the clamor and noise of life (cf. Mark 4:16-17, the troubles of life are a distraction). Finally, there are some who are distracted because other desires seem to be stronger (cf. Mark 4:18-19, the promise of riches and others things to make life easy).

There is something deeper than the pride of right actions and the hurts of harsh realities and the desires for a pain-free existence. That something deeper is what is promised at Christmas: a life with God … a life where we are experiencing love, joy, peace, patience, goodness because we are experiencing Him and listening to Him.

To receive the gifts of Christmas, we have to be able to listen. We don’t change and grow through magic or wishing it so but through a relationship of listening (heartfelt response to what is heard; often called “obedience”). We begin relationship with God through receiving the gift of forgiveness because of what Jesus did on the cross. We grow in the relationship as we do what He asks. His “asks” are for our hearts … all the commands of Scripture are for our hearts … that we would live from the heart according to our created design.

We need to be able to hear … and listen.

We spent the first week of Advent learning to wait … letting go of our perspectives, interpretations, and expectations. In doing this, He humbles us so that we are now in a place of being able to listen.

As we embark on sharpening our listening skills, there is one thing we need to keep in mind. He is always speaking. Several hundred years ago, Francois Fenelon wrote:

“We must silence every creature, including self, that in the deep stillness of soul we may perceive the ineffable voice of the Bridegroom. We must lend an attentive ear, for his voice is soft and still, and is only heard of those who hear nothing else! Ah, how rare it is to find a soul still enough to hear God speak! The slightest murmur of our vain desires, or of a love fixed upon self, confounds all the words of the Spirit of God. We hear well enough that he is speaking, and that he is asking for something, but we cannot distinguish what is said … let us recognize, then, the fact that God is incessantly speaking in us.”

As we begin this week of listening, practice the discipline of hearing today. Take 5-10 minutes of solitude and ask: “Father, what do You do desire to say to me today?”

• Begin with a Scripture reading (Hebrews 3:7-8), and then sit quietly and listen.
• Are there are voices, noises, or thoughts distracting you? Don’t try to control the distractions, just let them go (this is part of learning to hear/listen).
• Return to listening with a simple, “Father, Your servant is listening.”

*Don’t worry if you don’t hear anything, you are simply learning to put yourself in a place to hear/listen, and often, the Father just enjoys sitting quietly with us.

At the end of this time, simply pray:

Father, help me to silence every creature, including myself. I want to listen to You as I hear your voice. Help me to learn stillness so that I might be attentive to Your good and gracious voice. As I hear, may I have the courage to follow Your heart from my heart. Thank you for desiring to do life with me.

He humbles our hearts as we wait (Advent week 1 day 6).

The great German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that “the celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come.” This may sound strange to our modern ears but it actually contains the echoes of the eternal, timeless message of Jesus when He said in Matthew 5:3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.” It is the humble who know they need a Savior moment by moment in life. And, it is the humble who experience blessing because they are living under His gracious rule in their lives (“kingdom of God”).

The harsh reality is that living with a sense that we are poor and imperfect doesn’t come naturally or easily. We are much more likely to adopt another, much more self-protective, response to life in a broken, mixed up world. There are generally two paths:

First, we might be complainers. We might not think of ourselves as complainers but do you ever believe that if only situations and people changed, you could be happy? Do you ever consider the difficulties in your life to simply be the fault of others?

Here’s the problem: when we complain, we are holding hard things at a distance rather than embracing the reality that we are being affected. Instead of looking inward at how we are responding to life, we are pushing everything away from us. Complaining keeps us distanced from reality and therefore from God. God lives in the reality of what is, not in our conceptions of the way we wish things were.

Second, we might be in denial. This is the polar opposite of being a complainer but with the same effect. Those in denial act like everything is “just fine” even when it isn’t. There are times and situations that are just plain hard. Like complaining, when we live in denial, we are also not embracing reality.

There is, however, a third way and it is in the middle of these two extremes. It is the way of James 1:19 where we are challenged to be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.”

1. Being “quick to listen” means that we stop and ask God about what is going on. Rather than complaining (assuming we know how to assess things) or living in denial (acting like everything is really ok), we humble ourselves by asking God. “God, what do you want to say about what’s going on?”
2. Being “slow to speak” means that we stay in a place of dependence upon God. What will be has not been revealed. What His plans are for this situation have not completely played out. We wait rather than spew our incomplete perspective.
3. Being “slow to anger” means that we consider the deeper emotions of how we are responding. Anger is a secondary emotion. There is always something deeper than anger. Perhaps, it is hurt or embarrassment or disappointment or shame or fear. There may be times where we need to get angry but it is only healthy when it is not simply a covering for a deeper emotion. When that is the case, the anger can be unwieldy and damaging to us and others.

When we stop, stay, and consider, the result is that we are waiting with God and not rushing away from pain. We are able to confront our own poverty and imperfection. Then, we are living with a contentment that God is with us and He is at work. G. K. Chesterton wrote that contentment is “the power of getting out of a situation all that there is in it.”

Andreas Ebert suggested much the same:

“If we are unwilling to live askew for a while, to be set off balance, to wait on the ever spacious threshold, we remain in the same old room all our lives. If we will not balance knowing with a kind of open ended not knowing – nothing seems to happen. Thus it is called ‘faith’ and demands living with a certain degree of anxiety and holding a very real amount of tension.”

The counsel to slow down and wait places us in a perfect position to listen to God, and this sets us up for the next movement in our journey of “preparing Him room in our hearts.”

Today, as you encounter the hard things of life (whether things close to home or things you’re seeing in the news), ask yourself: do I tend to complain or live in denial? Notice your tendencies, but move away from them. Ask God what He has to say, waiting for His wisdom before you speak, and consider what is going on in your heart, deeper than the anger. Finally, stay in a place of waiting dependence, and once again, pray this prayer:

Gracious Father, humble my heart as I wait on you. Give me the strength to stop and wait so that you can be the One who saves me. Give me eyes to see my nakedness today but then to trust that You alone can clothe me. Use your Word, the world around me, and the words of others that I might see You alone as my savior all the day long. Amen.

He humbles our hearts as we wait (Advent week 1 day 5).

Waiting can be wearying if we are simply waiting as an exercise of our will power. However, the Biblical concept of waiting is not a “grit your teeth and bear it” kind of thing. It’s a joyful resting in the goodness and grace of God. We might not see His goodness and grace in our present circumstances, but this restful waiting unlocks the deep truth that He is at always work and He is always present in our lives.

Author Paula Gooder encourages the spiritual discipline of waiting as she writes:

“Waiting draws us into a different way of being that does not rush to easy answers – that often have complex consequences – but takes account of not just our own welfare but that of all those around us. Waiting involves seeing differently and recognizing that quick answers are not always the best ones.”

The answers that we can rush into often work at a subconscious level. When we can’t see God at work, our deep heart may assume that He isn’t at work. Consequently, we feel this urge to take charge. Our world is rife with “wisdom” that we have to take charge and seize the opportunity. That narrative seeps into our souls. The result is that we put ourselves in the driver’s seat and reduce God to a kindly repairman who will keep our car running.

Thankfully, God is patient with us and He has bigger plans for us. He desires for us to live in a trustful rhythm where He is in the driver’s seat and we are His servants, His friends. Waiting humbles us and reminds us of our created design which is also our greatest joy.

In the New Testament Epistle of James, we read the challenging counsel:

”Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” James 5:7-8

The challenge? Be patient … wait. The context of this challenge is looking at the “rich” who use their wealth for themselves. We may not, by definition, be rich but there is an attitude of self … self-preservation, self-promotion, self-protection … that can be a part of our lives. The lie is that we can or even should be the master of our world. To that attitude, the counsel is: be patient. Why? Because when life seems out of control (i.e., “where is God? Does He even care? Is He involved here?”), our temptation is seize the wheel. The counsel? Be patient. Wait. Why? Two reasons:

1. The coming of the Lord is at hand (or, near). The idea is that He is involved. He is present. He does have a plan. So, be patient …
2. He is at work. The “early and late rains” reference is often lost on a modern audience. The early and late rains are a symbol of God’s provision and a farmer’s dependence upon something outside himself to take care of things. The people of Israel were geographically and meteorologically dependent as they raised crops. The contrast was the farming of the people of Egypt (and the people of Israel experience this when slaves Egypt) in which they built irrigation canals. They used water from the Nile and other rivers anytime they desired. They were in control. God’s counsel here is that we can patient because He is in charge and we can trust. He will provide.

Why depend upon God if we have our own resources? Because living this way is indeed our created design and only waiting will usher us into a place of dependence. The “established heart” in James 5 is a strong heart which is humble because it is shaped by hope in God – not hope in self. The illusion of having our own resources and trusting in them is that it makes us strong. The deep truth is that it makes us weak because it stresses us and converts us into something we were never designed to be …

Spend a few minutes with the Lord, asking Him: in what ways am I like a “rich” farmer? When am I tempted to build my own irrigation ditches rather than trust that God is present and that He is at work?

Finally, express your trust and dependence as you pray:

Gracious Father, humble my heart as I wait on you. Give me the strength to stop and wait so that you can be the One who saves me. Give me eyes to see my nakedness today but then to trust that You alone can clothe me. Use your Word, the world around me, and the words of others that I might see You alone as my savior all the day long. Amen.

Note: we look at “waiting” for another day and then move into the next part of “preparing room” which is the amazing truth that He softens our hearts as we listen.

He humbles our hearts as we wait (Advent week 1 day 4).

The receiving and giving of gifts is inextricably linked to the Christmas season, and Advent is a time of learning to wait for the good gifts of Christmas. Children often make the season about getting and having as they impatiently obsess about what gifts they will receive and how soon they can be opened. The mature, however, understand that gifts are always about relationship, trusting in the nature and timing of the gifts to be received.

The discipline of waiting prepares our hearts to receive the good gifts that God gives us. When we are impatient, we are looking at life and God on our own terms … seeking to meet our needs according to our definitions and our timing. Waiting slows us down and humbles us, reminding us that the true gift is the giver Himself … One who loves us deeply. When our focus becomes the giver, we are able to receive His provision not as a deserved right but as a gracious gift that perfectly suits us.

When we are suffering or in need, we often clamor and complain but God’s counsel is that we become “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” (James 1:19) Why?

Because “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17) He always gives and provides exactly what we need and frequently there is a waiting period. Waiting creates a humility in our hearts that gives us fresh eyes to see His gifts that have often been present all along.

We think we want miracles and change and action but what we desire in the depths of our hearts is Him. He will let us wait so that we have the best opportunity to see and appreciate Him as our gift. One of the challenges in our world today is that we don’t have to wait. We can use a credit card to buy our way out of a tough situation. We can get a new job and move on to escape suffering. We can jump on a plane and be on the beach in an hour. The list could go on, but the reality is all too often we simply don’t wait for the good gifts that He brings.

Again, what are His gifts? In Luke 11:1-13, Jesus asks several questions to lead us into understanding how He works:

“What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

We seek and ask for specific kind of provision and He not only gives but gives better than we even know how to ask. And, again, the gift is His presence in the Holy Spirit. In Psalm 40, David cries out: “I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry.” David waited and realized that the Lord “inclined and heard” … He was present.

Do you trust that His presence is the gift above all gifts? Better than life itself? Waiting only makes sense in light of this reality, and learning to wait opens our heart to this gift above all gifts. And, the beauty is that we experience this gift in our waiting and then are able to receive anything else as a function of relationship, not rights. Our expectations change. Our prayers change. We change …

John Ortberg comments that:

“What always drives us, at the soul level, is that if I believe I cannot trust God for the satisfaction of my soul, then I will take my soul’s satisfaction into my own hands. I may not acknowledge that even to myself.”

Today, look for the gift of His presence in your life. Set an alarm on your phone or watch or computer for several times throughout the day. When the alarm goes off, stop and ask: “how am I seeing the gift of His presence today?” Ponder, acknowledge, thank Him, and then pray the following:

Gracious Father, humble my heart as I wait on you. Give me the strength to stop and wait so that you can be the One who saves me. Give me eyes to see my nakedness today but then to trust that You alone can clothe me. Use your Word, the world around me, and the words of others that I might see You alone as my savior all the day long. Amen.

He humbles our hearts as we wait (Advent week 1 day 3).

Singing the song “Silent Night” at this time of year can be a deeply moving experience. The very words silent and holy used to describe a singular evening draw us into the sacred drama of God the Son entering human history. There is something about the holiness of the moment that silences us. When we encounter the holy, there are not words that can adequately describe. Silence ends up being the perfect language.

Indeed, silence has been called the first language of God. In 1 Kings 19, it was the “sound of silence” which elicited awe and humility from Elijah’s heart. Silence takes away the pretense that noise often affords our hearts. When things are noisy, we can hide and pretend behind the clamor and the clanging. Our explanations and defenses are laid down in the arena of silence, leaving us in the purity of just being before a good and gracious Savior. It can be scary but it is purifying and full of awe.

A moment of silence on Christmas Eve is beautiful but a regular practice of silence ushers us into a way of living that transcends circumstance and makes us aware of the holy all around. The response to a holy moment is silence, but equally true is that silence can gives us eyes to see the holy.

As we consider learning to wait in order to humble our hearts, silence plays a huge part. In Psalm 65, King David cries out:

“For God alone my soul waits in silence. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.”

Robert L’Esperance, one of the brothers of the Society of St. John the Evangelist said:

“Advent is a time to look for ‘desert places’: the place of solitude, the place of true silence in which we can become fully awake to our sin and God’s forgiving grace which alone can heal it.”

Take 5-10 minutes today to be quiet. Sit in silence and just listen. Quietly repeat the words of Psalm 65: “For God alone my soul waits in silence.” Then, wait quietly. As thoughts or distractions rush in, simply pray the words of Psalm 65.

There is nothing magic about “practicing” silence but it does express a deep trust in God that goes deeper than words. It touches the depths of our being because it goes past the surface noise of life.

Finally, once again pray this simple prayer of waiting throughout the day …

Gracious Father, humble my heart as I wait on you. Give me the strength to stop and wait so that you can be the One who saves me. Give me eyes to see my nakedness today but then to trust that You alone can clothe me. Use your Word, the world around me, and the words of others that I might see You alone as my savior all the day long. Amen.

He humbles our hearts as we wait (Advent week 1 day 2).

Preparing room in our hearts for Jesus begins as He humbles our hearts through waiting. We wait when we embrace the mystery that is the work of God in our lives. There is a deep mystery to the ways of our Father. There is a sublime simplicity to the incarnation and also a mystery to its application in our lives. To put it another way, theologians have noticed that there is an “already/not yet” to the Gospel of Jesus. For us today, it is “already” true that God the Son was born into a manger and died for our sins. There is deep joy in this reality, and there is also a “not yet” to experiencing all the ramifications of forgiveness and new life.

In 1 John 3:2-3, John expresses this “already/not yet” reality:

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

Living in between the “already” and the not “yet” requires waiting, but it is not a passive waiting. It is, in John’s words, a purifying waiting based in hope. Waiting means that we hold tight to a God who has more in store than we are presently experiencing. Rather than try to understand and control the transitions between now and then, we wait in the hope that a process is unfolding. The end of the process is described in terms of his second appearing and we live in between the two appearings. As we wait for our ultimate salvation, we experience tastes and touches of His love (“what we will be has not yet appeared”) but they are only tastes.

We are purified when we live in the tension … the tension of the mystery. We don’t have all the answers … there is much that has not yet appeared. Not knowing can create frustration or even acting impulsively but a hopeful waiting purifies. Purity is the result because we live in dependence upon Him and not the independence of self-provision.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin encourages:

“Above all else, trust the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming in you will be. Give our Lord the benefit that His hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense, and incomplete.”

As the people of Israel journeyed to the land which would flow with milk and honey, God gave them daily bread (“the manna”). It was enough for the day but it was not the milk and honey. It was given with the hope that something more was coming. The people of Israel were frustrated and acted out. We can be short-sighted and judge the transitions as though they were the final answer. Waiting sees the tensions and incompleteness, enjoying the tastes and touches in light of something more.

Notice those places and times today when you feel incomplete and in suspense, desiring more. Rather than try to get rid of the mystery, embrace it and wait with hope … the hope of a Savior who is going to appear.

Pray this prayer again through the day as you receive His invitation to wait …

Gracious Father, humble my heart as I wait on you. Give me the strength to stop and wait so that you can be the One who saves me. Give me eyes to see my nakedness today but then to trust that You alone can clothe me. Use your Word, the world around me, and the words of others that I might see You alone as my savior all the day long. Amen.

He humbles our hearts as we wait (Advent week 1 day 1).

The preparation of our hearts begins with waiting. Waiting? That dreaded word! We don’t like to wait. Why? Because waiting humbles us … it reminds us that we aren’t in control … that we can’t save ourselves. It puts us in a place of depending on someone else. We don’t like it because it strips us down to simply “being” rather than “doing.” Most of our “doing” is about clothing ourselves so we don’t have to feel naked and vulnerable. Our “doings” are generally an attempt to clothe ourselves with relationships, possessions, or achievements.

To just “be” feels vulnerable but it is in our vulnerability that He meets us. It is not in our attempts to control things that we experience Him but in our weakness and dependence. When we feel vulnerable, with a lack of security or power or respect, we try to make things happen. We try to save ourselves. And that is our undoing …

It is when we wait that a Savior can appear. When we strike out on our own, we never sense our need and never cry out for help. We might ask him to help us save ourselves but He desires to save us into life with Him, being clothed in Him, not saving us with the clothes we think we want.

Initially, when we come to faith, it is because we stopped and believed that we couldn’t save ourselves. Then, day by day, we experience His salvation in our lives when we wait for Him to keep on saving us.

In Psalm 25:1-3, David cries out to God:

“To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in You I trust, Do not let me be ashamed; Do not let my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed; Those who deal treacherously without cause will be ashamed.” (NASB)

Why does he pray “do not let me be ashamed”? Because David was face to face with his need, his nakedness. He knew he needed to be clothed. He expresses the faith of waiting, knowing that God will clothe Him. Those who “deal treacherously” speaks of those times when we take matters into our own hands and David affirms that this always leads to shame, because we simply can’t clothe ourselves adequately. We are always left with incompleteness.

When we wait, we experience the God who has always been there. It takes stopping and waiting to notice what has been ours all along. When we wait, we become aware … aware of the ways we try to save ourselves and aware of the Savior who is always with us.

Make it a goal to wait today. When you feel that urge to take control of a situation, stop and wait for your Savior. Feel that sense of nakedness but let it be an invitation to trust, not action.

We’ll pray this prayer together through this week of asking the Father to humble our hearts as we wait:

Gracious Father, humble my heart as I wait on you. Give me the strength to stop and wait so that you can be the One who saves me. Give me eyes to see my nakedness today but then to trust that You alone can clothe me. Use your Word, the world around me, and the words of others that I might see You alone as my savior all the day long. Amen.

On Christmas, we sing Joy to the World which contains the line: “let every heart prepare Him room.” Quite often, these are simply sentimental words. They are words we like and words we want to be true. However, preparation takes time and we can’t wish our way into preparing room for God in our lives.

In our world of “instant everything”, we can easily transfer the idea of “instant” into our lives with God. We desire to be able to “say the word” and experience relationship with Him. On the one hand, He is always present in our lives but often not in an experiential way. We might “know” that He is near but not experience that nearness in the daily moments of life. The invitation to “prepare Him room” is an invitation to experience Him at the heart level, at the level of our conscious awareness and not simply at the level of theological assent. This doesn’t happen in an instant … it requires preparation in the same way we might prepare to have a house guest.

For many of us, our hearts are like the homes on the television show Hoarders. Every square inch of our hearts are filled with things that we believe will make us happy: relationships, jobs, activities, possessions, even “religious” activities. None of these are “bad” things but they aren’t meant to satisfy our souls. And then, we frequently hold hurts, grudges, habits, or other desires in our hearts. Throw in the busyness of life and there just isn’t any room for a visitor.

On Hoarders, the cleaning project begins with a humble acknowledgement that there is a need for change. Over these next three a half weeks of Advent, we’ll walk through a process for making room in our hearts for Christ.

Our life with God is always an adventure in what Eugene Peterson calls the “middle voice”. In the English language, we understand “active voice” in which we do something and the “passive voice” in which something is done to us. Other languages have the “middle voice” in which one is active and passive at the same time. Peterson writes:

“Prayer and spirituality feature participation, the complex participation of God and the human, his will and our wills. We do not abandon ourselves to drown in the ocean of love, losing identity. We do not pull the strings that activate God’s operations in our lives, subjecting God to our assertive identity. We neither manipulate God (active voice) nor are we manipulated by God (passive voice). We are involved in the action and participate in its results but do not control or define it (middle voice). Prayer takes place in the middle voice.”

The middle voice means that we wait … actively, and that is what advent is all about. There is tension in the waiting but there is no other way. So, the idea is that we allow Him to prepare room in our hearts but we also participate. How will this work? As we allow Him to prepare the room, what is our role? Over these next weeks of the Advent Season, we’ll walk through the following:

Week 1: He humbles our hearts as we wait

Week 2: He softens our hearts as we listen

Week 3: He expands our hearts as we release

Week 4: He occupies our heart as we open

Let’s journey together in these days of Advent as we learn to wait, listen, release, open, and finally celebrate the one who comes to live in our hearts! Advent comes from a Latin word which means “coming” or “arrival” and the days of Advent challenge us to prepare and be in waiting mode. We may have come to know Jesus years ago, but Advent once again allows us to go deeper into the joy of a Savior who dwells with us and in us. He alone is the One for whom we were made. It was Augustine who prayed: “Our heart is restless until it rests in you.” Let’s pray his prayer as we begin living into this Season of Advent …

Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we, who are a due part of your creation, long to praise you – we also carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin and with it the proof that you thwart the proud. You arouse us so that praising you may bring us joy, because you have made us and drawn us to yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you. Amen.

Spend some time with that prayer and make it your own.

Tomorrow, we begin with learning to wait … that He might humble our hearts.

The great German writer Goethe once penned: “All that is transitory is but a metaphor.” In that simple phrase, he was saying a lot. That which is eternal is what is most real and that which is transitory is a metaphor which gives us eyes to see the eternal.

All created things are windows into the Divine. This idea is rich and contains echoes of the wisdom of the Hebrew poets:

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. (Ps 19:1-2)

O Lord … how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Ps 8:1)

However, quite frequently, we live our lives as though what is seen is the ultimate. When created things are ultimate, we can end up living in a place of discontent and ungratefulness. When created things are ultimate, we believe that we need them to be satisfied. Or, when circumstances are hard, we believe we need to get rid of them in order to be satisfied.

Again, the wisdom of the Hebrew poets speaks boldly:

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Ps 84:10)

Our satisfaction and joy and purpose in life are found in God alone and the way that we interact with what we see (the transitory) affects whether or not we find our satisfaction in Him. If created things are windows into the Divine, then we can accept all things or their absence as an entry point into experiencing Him. How does this work?

In his writing to Timothy (1 Tim 4:1-5), the Apostle Paul shares that “some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” He goes on to say that “everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.”

What is the teaching of “demons” referred to by Paul? Quite simply: that some of what God created (e.g., marriage or certain foods) are bad. Paul boldly says that all things are created to be received with a thankful heart. And, through the guidance of the word of God and our relationship with God, all created things are sacred (holy). They propel us to see God and appreciate Him. Marriage! Yes, even a hard one, can be received with thanksgiving and give us eyes to see God. His love, His longsuffering, His sacrificial heart can be experienced in marriage. Having a meal can remind us that God is a provider of all good things. Metaphorically, He gives “daily bread.” The list could go on.

How are you receiving all things with thanksgiving?

Ignatius of Loyola penned some incredibly wise words centuries ago:

“Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created. From this it follows that man is to use them as much as they help him on to this end, and ought to rid himself of them so far as they hinder him as to it. For this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.”

Is your desire to have the “good things” of life for which you will give thanks or to accept all things as opportunities to know and praise and serve God? The way that you view created things will determine the way you receive them.

Oswald Chambers beautifully states: “We can all see God in exceptional things, but it requires the growth of spiritual discipline to see God in every detail. Never believe that the so-called random events of life are anything less than God’s appointed order. Be ready to discover His divine designs anywhere and everywhere.”

Receiving all things with thanksgiving is truly transforming. Let this be your prayer over these days of Thanksgiving:

Father, give me courage to receive all things with a “yes” … seeing all things as an opportunity to know You and praise You and serve You. On my part, I desire neither health rather than sickness, neither riches rather than poverty, neither honor rather than dishonor, neither long rather than short life, but simply that all things would become holy through You.

If you don’t believe everything in that prayer, pray it until you do!