Prepare our Heart for the LORD!
Devotions this week based on Come Home Week 2 – HEART (WATCH HERE)
Isaiah 40:3 A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
Scripture tells us that preparing the way for the Lord is not about perfect behavior, spotless routines, or flawless religious performance. Isaiah says the way is prepared when the valleys are lifted up, the mountains are brought low, and the crooked places are made straight. These images are not commands for us to fix ourselves; they are pictures of what God Himself does within our heart. Preparing the way for the Lord begins when the Spirit of God changes the deepest places of our hearts with his transforming power.
We often think spiritual growth depends on our ability to manage, control, or improve ourselves. But Scripture gives a different picture. Psalm 145:14 says, “The Lord upholds all who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.” God is the One who lifts what is low—our shame, our despair, our hidden exhaustion. He takes the parts of us we try to hide and brings healing where we thought only brokenness existed.
He also brings low what is high. Pride, self-reliance, stubborn independence—these mountains are not leveled by guilt or self-discipline but by the gentle work of God’s Spirit. Proverbs 3:5–6 reminds us to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding. When we stop relying on our own strength, God straightens our wandering paths. He clarifies decisions, aligns our steps, and guides us toward wholeness.
Ezekiel 36:26 offers perhaps the most comforting promise of all: “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” God softens what is hardened in us—old wounds, deep disappointments, defensive habits, and fears that have calcified over time. We are not asked to make our hearts tender; we are invited to bring our hearts to the One who can.
We are not called to reshape ourselves. We are not called to manufacture spiritual growth. God Himself reshapes what life has damaged. The valleys, mountains, crooked places, and hardened ground are not tasks on our spiritual to-do list. They are invitations for God to work.
So how do we respond? We invite Him in. We allow the Spirit of God to be the “road crew” to prepare our hearts to welcome our Savior.
Home is not the place where everything is perfectly ordered. Home is the place where healing is happening. In the same way, a spiritually prepared heart is not a flawless heart—it is a heart where God is welcome to work.
Invite Him into your lowest places—the parts of you overwhelmed by discouragement or weariness. Invite Him into your hardest struggles—the patterns that feel too strong to break. Invite Him into your hidden failures—the regrets you rarely speak aloud. These are the very places where the Lord builds pathways for His presence, leveling and straightening it all with the power of his love and the reality of his forgiving grace!
Apply: Where do I most need God to reshape my heart? Which valleys need lifting? Which mountains need leveling? Which hardened places need softening?
Prayer: Lord, create in me a heart that welcomes You. Lift what is low, soften what is hard, and straighten what is crooked in me. Make my heart a home where Your healing can take root. Amen.
Rest. Your service is complete!
Devotions this week based on Come Home Week 2 – HEART (WATCH HERE)
Isaiah 40:2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
Her warfare is finished that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
After a long day of work, you want to know your work is done and you can relax. After a grueling week of semester exams, you breathe easier when the last one is handed in. After a tour of duty, you are overwhelmed with relief when your commanding officer proclaims, “Dismissed!” and your hard service is complete.
Our hearts yearn for the same relief. The exhaustion we carry is not only physical. It is spiritual. We grow weary from trying to prove ourselves, from guilt we cannot erase, and from failures we cannot undo. But God meets us in that weariness with an invitation.
Jesus says:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say clean yourself up first. He does not say fix what you broke before you come. He invites the weary just as they are. Rest is not something you achieve. It is something you receive.
Paul reminds believers that forgiveness is not a feeling but a finished fact:
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13-14
Our sins are not waiting to be addressed. They are already covered. The charges are not pending. They are canceled. The cross did not partially pay your debt. It erased it completely.
Romans speaks to those who still believe their failures place them outside of grace:
“The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” Romans 5:20
Grace always outpaces guilt.
These three truths stand together like gospel pillars supporting a weary soul.
Rest replaces striving.
Forgiveness replaces shame.
Grace replaces condemnation.
This is the heart of Isaiah 40.
Your warfare is ended.
Your sin is paid for.
You no longer have to labor to be loved.
Yet, some of us are still living as though the cross did not finish its work. Some of us are still fighting battles God already won. Some of us are still punishing ourselves for sins God already forgave. Some of us are still striving for approval that Christ already secured.
Christmas gives us another chance to come home not just to a season but to a Savior. Let this be the moment you stop carrying what Jesus already carried for you. Lay it down. The regret. The guilt. The need to be good enough.
You were never meant to carry your own salvation. Jesus already did.
Your warfare is over. Jesus won for you!
Apply: What burden am I still holding that Jesus is inviting me to lay down? What would it look like to actually rest in forgiveness and not just talk about it?
Prayer: Jesus, I bring You my weariness and my guilt. Thank You for the cross that canceled my debt. Teach my heart to rest in grace and not strive for what You already secured. Replace my shame with forgiveness and my fear with peace. I receive what You freely give. Amen.
The heart issue behind coming home!
Devotions this week based on Come Home Week 2 – HEART (WATCH HERE)
Have you ever not wanted to go somewhere because of the person that was there?
As we move closer to Christmas, this may be reality for you. You are planning a trip to someone’s home, but that someone is not a person you want to be with.
Why?
Usually the reason you don’t want to be with someone is not their cooking, their decorating or their location.
Rather, it’s probably because the relationship isn’t right.
As a result you don’t feel right around them.
It’s a heart issue.
Human relationships can leave our hearts wounded. A past hurt. A current conflict. A toxic relationship.
All these challenge our hearts to desire to be in the same place as the person with whom we are at odds.
The same can happen with our relationship with God.
We are angry because we feel he treated us poorly. We have shame over a past sin. We feel uneasy because we haven’t seen him in a while.
When our hearts are broken, distant, or disconnected, we resist being in God’s presence.
Yet he desires to be with us.
So he speaks to our hearts.
He gave these words to Isaiah 2700 years ago, but they are for us today as well.
Isaiah 40:1-2 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
Her warfare is finished that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
God speaks to comfort. Israel was weary from exile, heavy from guilt, and tired from waiting.
So God speaks to their hearts.
To “speak tenderly” literally means to speak “to the hearts of Jerusalem.” The Lord wanted his words to work past the facade into their hearts. He wanted the truths to sink in deeply.
Whatever was the heart-barrier that was with the people, he wanted to speak words of comfort. He wanted people to know that he was speaking to heal hurts and assure of his love. He wanted these words to break down any heart barriers that were getting in the way of people being in his presence.
God gives the same gift to us. He wants his words to speak to our hearts. He wants his words to assure us we are welcome in his presence and no longer have to stay away. He welcomes us into the stable to see in the manger our Savior born for us.
Christmas is God’s way of saying:
“You are still Mine.”
Apply: Where do I need God’s comfort more than advice right now?
Prayer: Father, quiet my heart. Let me hear Your tenderness, not my shame. Thank You that You speak comfort before You speak correction. Amen.
God dwells with His people eternally
Devotions this week based on Come Home Week 1 – PLACE (WATCH HERE)
Revelation 21:3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
“I’m but a stranger here. Heaven is my home.”
This phrase is also a title of a hymn in our Lutheran hymnbook. It’s a hymn that moves our hearts and minds to our eternal home. Don’t get me wrong, God gives many blessings to us (even in our challenges) while we live on this earth. Yet, enjoying earth is not God’s ultimate desire for us.
He desires that he dwells with us and we with him for an eternity.
God’s heart from the beginning when he created and dwelt with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was to enjoy the presence of his people and they enjoy his. Sin ruined that. But God’s desire to dwell with his people continued through the tabernacle, the temple and his son Jesus. All had one goal.
God’s dwelling with his people.
The Bible ends where it began, with God and humanity together. No barriers. No separation. No sorrow.
In heaven, sin can no longer wreak havoc on our relationship with the Lord. The ultimate relationship with the Lord will be enjoyed by all in his presence.
By his grace that is you.
Heaven is your home because home is where God is.
This Christmas, let the message of Christ coming to dwell with us not be an endpoint to forget on December 26. Let this Christmas renew your appreciation and wonder that God would choose you to dwell with you. Be humbled that God would desire to be in your presence and he with you! Give gratitude that through Jesus heaven awaits for you to enjoy the perfect relationship with you Savior for all eternity. Let Christmas not only point you to the manger of Bethlehem but forward to eternity.
Apply: How does heaven reshape today? What does the truth of dwelling with God for all eternity change as you face the challenges of your day?
Prayer: God of glory, carry us through this life with the hope of the next. Anchor us in eternity. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.
GOD LIVES INSIDE HIS PEOPLE
Devotions this week based on Come Home Week 1 – PLACE (WATCH HERE)
Ephesians 3:16-17 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
In Paul’s words to the Ephesians there is a truth so profound that it reshapes how we understand God’s presence. Throughout Scripture, God’s dwelling place moves closer and closer to His people. In the wilderness He lived in a tent, the tabernacle. Later, His glory filled the grand temple in Jerusalem. But in Christ, an even greater shift occurs: God no longer chooses fabric or stone as His address. He chooses the human heart.
This is the miracle at the center of the gospel. Through faith, Christ takes up residence within us. We become the sacred space where God’s presence rests. Not because we are naturally holy, but because grace has made us a suitable home. The God who formed galaxies now forms His dwelling in the inner places of those who trust Him.
Christmas reminds us that God came near, near enough to be cradled, near enough to walk among us. But the manger was only the beginning of God’s desire to dwell with humanity. His ultimate desire was to dwell in humanity. The incarnation leads to indwelling. God wrapped Himself in flesh so that, by His Spirit, He could wrap Himself around our hearts.
And because He lives in us, the most ordinary moments of life become places of divine encounter. We carry the presence of God into rooms, relationships, and responsibilities. We are walking sanctuaries—not because of who we are, but because of who lives within us.
This also reshapes how we understand “home.” Home is not primarily a location, an income level, or a collection of things. Home is the presence of Christ within the believer. You are not home because of what you own. You are home because of who lives in you. When Christ dwells in your heart, stability is possible even when circumstances shake. Peace is possible even when storms rage. Love is possible even when relationships disappoint. Christ brings His life, His strength, His healing, His authority from the inside out.
So we must ask ourselves: Is my heart open or guarded toward Christ? We often welcome Him into certain rooms—Sunday mornings, crises, the areas we feel confident in—while keeping other rooms locked. Fear, shame, old wounds, and stubborn habits can make us resistant to His presence. Yet Christ does not expose to condemn; He exposes to forgive and restore. Every locked room becomes a place of new life when He enters.
As you reflect today, remember this truth: You are God’s chosen dwelling place. Not because you are perfect, but because you are loved. Not because you are worthy, but because Christ has made you holy by His presence. Live today aware that the One who calmed seas and raised the dead is alive in you.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, make Your home in us. Rearrange what needs healing. Restore what is broken. Rule where You dwell. Amen.