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
Have you ever bought a piece of furniture only to begin measuring as soon as you get home? How will we make room for it? Perhaps, you have added a new weekly event to your calendar, and you start scurrying to find that extra hour. In both cases, we only have an allotted amount of room whether it’s in our house or our schedule. If something new comes in, something old has to leave. The same is true for our lives.
Where can we make room for Jesus? We struggle to give Him our time. Jesus, You have to understand. I didn’t realize all this was going on today. I’ll pray double tomorrow. Jesus, we are in church on Sunday morning. Surely You will give us some slack when the game is on Sunday night.
We give our tithes and offerings, but Jesus has to understand when things get tight, we’ve got to cut back just a little. Jesus, we didn’t know You wanted to control all our finances. Isn’t ten percent enough?
Jesus, do You really need to be in the midst of our marriage? Marriage is between a husband and a wife. We didn’t realize our marriage needs to please You too.
Now hold on, Jesus, we’ve given You our finances and our marriage, but why can’t we hold onto our anger? It’s actually our pleasure to broadcast how someone did us wrong. We stopped complaining about our husbands when we gave You free reign in our marriage. Why can’t we keep some bitterness and gossip?
OK, Jesus, You win. We give it all to You. Not grudgingly, but we really want to please You. We know life runs smoother when we give You the wheel.
But we don’t give it all to Him when He isn’t a major part of our decision-making. Is Jesus in control of the TV remote or our phones? Are we thinking more of Jesus and others than ourselves? Yes, Jesus wants our thoughts too.
When the innkeeper told Mary and Joseph there was no room at the inn, it truly reflected the Christian life. We live in the flesh, and until the Spirit possesses total control of our lives, flesh will always seek to serve itself.
Where do we need to make room for Jesus? Our finances? Our schedules? Our activities? Our marriages? Our emotions? Our thoughts? For some of us, the answer is obvious. Others may need to make room in every area of life.
Are there areas where we say, “No room for Jesus here,” or are we willing to tell Jesus we will get rid of some junk? We will do some rearranging. We want to yield to Jesus, and give Him what rightfully is His. Jesus doesn’t want a room. He wants the entire inn.
Lord Jesus, show us the places where we aren’t giving You room. Help us sacrifice self to allow You complete control. Amen.
DIG DEEPPER
Read Luke 2:1-20
HIKING THE TRAIL
Unless the Spirit convicts us, we typically don’t realize how little room Jesus has in our lives. What are two things you can do this week to give Jesus the room He deserves? What wisdom can you share in the comments to help others?
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Originally posted on December 16, 2019 @ 3:00 am