“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.”
Isaiah 40:3-5/Luke 3:4-6

The word used for paths (tribos) means “beaten pathway”. When I saw this I started to wonder if I go to God so regularly that my life is like a beaten pathway towards Him, or if there is any debris or clutter in my life that keeps God from using me to do great things and to prepare the way for Him. Is there a beaten pathway in my life straight and smooth for the Lord to come in and use me? When I look at the Gospel story of how God became man and came to earth to be born of a woman and walk and live as we do I am amazed. This is a wondrous thing, that God looked down on all mankind to appoint people to prepare the way for His Son and He chose Mary, Joseph and the others. I just can’t get this question from my mind: Am I prepared to do a great work of God?

God does great works every day. Everything He does is good and for His glory. Nothing happens that God did not intend and everything that happens is in His control and enveloped by His sovereign will. Sometimes we fall into a dark hole where we start saying, “Does God even work in my life?” And we wonder why He isn’t answering prayers, changing people or adapting our circumstances. Great works are God’s specialty. If we forget this we need to go back and read of the creation in Genesis and of Christ’s coming in the gospels. This is not a different God. He did wonders in the lives of Moses, Abraham, David, and so many others. He is the same God today! 2 Corinthians 1:20 says,

“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes,
and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”

All of God’s promises in both the Old and New Testaments of joy, love, goodness, peace, fellowship, hope, forgiveness, salvation and sanctification are made possible and completed in Christ Jesus. If I am abiding in Christ I will be prepared to see the “Yes” to all of God’s promises in my life. So I should not be posing the question of whether or not God is doing great things, instead, I should be asking myself if I am prepared for God to work in my life.

The author of this study states that in order to be prepared we need to be consecrated or sanctified to God, available and prepared to see His wonders. My mom and I had a conversation yesterday about that word sanctified. It means clean, dedicated, and holy and set apart. If I am sanctified to Him, I can see His wonders. With this thought two verses come to mind:

“Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men,
him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God.”
Luke 12:8

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”
James 4:8

I couldn’t stop thinking about this even after I finished that chapter in the Bible study book. All of the promises of God are yes in Christ and that I can see those wondrous promises in my own life if I am set apart and sanctified to Him. Of course my question is how can I prepare myself for this? What I am finding is this: God is holy, I am not. I have sin. If I am going to confess Him and draw near to Him, I must be putting my sin behind me and choosing to walk in His righteousness. A very eye-opening passage on this is

“Cleanse your hands, you sinners;

and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”
James 4:8-10

Being prepared has much to do with being broken, humble and aware of my sin. Repentance, the message of John the Baptist is one that I need to come to grips with today. I know that I try to make excuses for my sin. I like to call sin by other names so I won’t feel so bad. I shift the blame to others or my circumstances or try to ignore it. But the truth is that sin is a problem in my life as it is in every life. Not one person is clean of sin, and God will not be in the presence of sin. But those who believe are free of the bondage of sin and can draw near to the presence of God.

“Repent therefore and be converted,
That your sins may be blotted out,
So that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord”

Acts 3:19

God does great and wondrous things, if I am to be a part of them, I must be holy, pure, clean and sanctified. This is how I will be prepared to see His works in my life. I need to take my sin seriously, not just praying, “God, please forgive all the wrong things I did today.” The more I draw near to God and see how holy He is I must mourn over my sin, I must become broken. Instead of praying in a general flippant sense I can acknowledge specific ways that I had sinned in my every way, action, words, attitudes and thoughts. I must agree with the Lord in His word that my sin is against Him and that He detests it. I can ask for His forgiveness and cleansing. Seeing this very pointed explanation of confession and repentance I have really started to ask myself, do I quench the Spirit by not confessing my sins daily to the Lord? Do I have weeds of sin growing in my heart cluttering the path where it should be beaten down to make a clear way for Him?

God may be waiting on me to do some amazing things in my life or use me for His purpose but He wants to see that I am prepared for His works and sanctified to Him. I just think of how Christ came and was perfect and spotless. When He was baptized it did not symbolize cleansing, but of His devotion to the will of the Father. In Luke 3:22 God shows that He is “well pleased” by sending His Spirit onto Jesus. I want the Lord to be pleased with me. I want to know Him, to put my sin behind me daily and draw near to Him with a pure heart. Who knows what kind of wonders and works I could see, if only I will become prepared by being sanctified.

“And Joshua said the people,
‘Sanctify yourselves,
For tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”
Joshua 3:5