Are You Preparing The Way

We all know that John the Baptist was sent to prepare the way for Jesus, if we have been believers, reading and studying the Word for any length of time.

Read what it says about this in Luke 3:1-6, “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”

It would have been easy to think of John as a very strange man and not someone that God would use for the ministry of preparing the way for the Messiah.

Read what it says about John in Matthew 3:1-4, “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.’ Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.”

How many of us look at ourselves in somewhat the same way because we are not beautiful or we don’t have beautiful clothes or we haven’t been well educated or we are too heavy or some other reason or problem, we don’t think that God would use us?  Maybe someone has told you that God wouldn’t use you because of the way you look or some of the other reasons I mentioned.  Let me assure you that God has a plan for every believer, and if you are willing, He will use you in some way or other to further His kingdom.  You may not be a pastor or a teacher or an evangelist, in the spotlight so to speak, but there are so many ministries you could be involved in.  

Think of most of the disciples; some were fishermen and not well educated, one was a doctor and one a tax collector.  Then think of Saul, before he was named Paul, he was a Pharisee who went around arresting and having believers killed until he had an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.  Read Acts chapters 7 and 8; all of these men started out with what we might call, ‘strikes against them,’ but when they received the call of God on their lives it made all the difference.  

Remember this, if you feel ill equipped to minister, the Lord does not always call the equipped but He always equips the called.  Take me for instance, I am not a pastor, teacher or evangelist and I don’t have a great education.  I have some physical problems, one of them being an Essential Tremor and I cannot even write my name and at times my super, nice, loving wife has to feed me, but I still try to encourage people with the good Lord’s help.  

Every believer has a testimony of what the Lord has done in their lives and they can use that testimony to prepare the way for the Lord in someone or many people’s lives.  Like John prepared the people in his day for the Lord’s coming, so can we in our day.  I hope this has been an encouragement and a help for all who read it today and that we will use the gifts and talents the good Lord has blessed us with today to prepare the way for Jesus to be received in someone else’s life today and every day.  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day and don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord!!