Making Room
Week Twenty-Six
June 22, 2025
She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to His message. But Martha was distracted …
— Luke 10:39,40a
My two-year-old grandson is easily distracted. A ten-foot journey can take five minutes and have three side trips. His attention is grabbed and engaged with little effort by little things. We’re the same way at times when it comes to how we relate to the Lord, aren’t we? We tend to become suddenly sidetracked and progressively preoccupied. Like Martha, we’ve opened the home of our heart to Jesus, but have become distracted. It’s the nature of our relationship with time — our time is like an empty shelf that effortlessly attracts clutter, because we long to be filled.
Mary was engaged with Jesus. What engages you? Without a doubt, there are hundreds of preoccupations, some worthy, some not so worthy, that we could fill our lives with. But this I know, time spent with Jesus is time well spent. Around twenty years ago I started spending time in prayer with a cup of coffee and ten minutes. That was it. “Here I am Lord, here are my two fish and five loaves; here is my small effort.” But the Lord had inspired and appointed this time, and he began to develop it. My prayer life grew from ten minutes to twenty minutes, and then thirty minutes and more; and it remained consistent. Do not despise small beginnings.
Your experience may differ. Prayer may require great effort on your part and seem to yield little. One thing I can tell you is that something will occupy your time. Jesus promises that when we choose him, we choose the “good thing”. This is the wisest of investments. We fill our time, and we spend our time. I’d like to encourage you to choose the good part. Like Mary did. She filled her time with Jesus and spent it listening, imbibing words of life from the Living Word. Martha was distracted, but Mary was engaged.
The Lord is always drawing us to himself and leading us to what is good for us. My wife bought me a Puritan prayer book for Christmas 2021 called, The Valley of Vision. She sent it along to me while I was in the hospital with COVID-19. One line from one of the prayers reads, “May my heart be more knit to Jesus.” ¹ I love the sentiment in that statement. I need that.
Can I ask you to consider something? Perhaps your time as of late has been crowded with everything and everyone besides Jesus. Perhaps prayer feels like a burden to you (something it was never meant to be). Again, I’d like to encourage you. The Lord invites us to exchange our worries, our strength and striving, our busyness, for his peace, his sufficiency, and his joy. He desires to knit your heart to his.
Can you hear him knocking?
Monday
June 23, 2025
To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the LORD has planted for his own glory.
— Isaiah 61:3 (NLT)
The Lord offers to us a beautiful exchange: a crown of acceptance for our failed efforts; refreshment, rest, and restoration for the worry and anxiety that fills our minds; a future and a hope in the now and in the desperate. Maybe you’d like to exchange some of your ashes for beauty. I’d like to invite you to make room for Jesus and invite him into your mess. Look at what he did for Lazarus. There was mourning, there was weeping, there was despair. There was death. But one call into a darkened tomb, one word from the Living Word, and everything changed. Jesus still offers us an unmatched exchange — life for death.
What would you like to exchange in your life today? What do you think God would give you in exchange?
What is one way you could make room for the Lord in your life today? What part, if any, do honesty and trust play in this great exchange?
Tuesday
June 24, 2025
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.
— Revelation 3:20 (BSB)
I think it’s revealing that Jesus talks about food in this scripture. Don’t you enjoy the celebration that surrounds good food shared with good friends? Jesus is standing at the door of your heart knocking, not to come in and clean house or dole out unhelpful chidings, but rather to bring words of life. “Let’s share a meal and talk,” he says. We are invited to open the door and also to listen, as Mary did; to sit at the table with Jesus and enjoy words from the gentle and lowly one. His words may be peppered with correction or salted with direction, but his company is always an experience of grace. This is truly fine dining.
Does correction mean rejection? What does Jesus say correction means?
Have you ever been afraid to open the door of your heart to Jesus? What gave you the trepidation to do so?
Wednesday
June 25, 2025
And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.”
— Luke 22:40 (ESV)
Temptation lurks; that’s what it does. It seeks to sneak up on us, occupy our hearts, and fill our thoughts. It seeks to crowd out the Lord. But we have a weapon, or should I say, a key; and that key is prayer. Prayer invites a royal guest through the hallways of our mind into the chambers of our heart. Prayer invites Christ to take up occupancy in our need-filled lives. Prayer sets our heart apart from the bustle and distraction and creates a space to be still. God has promised joy in prayer. His offer is green pastures and still waters; he gives us rest.
What forms do temptation take for you? For example, maybe you struggle with fretting or workaholism. How does prayer help us to deal with such temptations?
What “place” had Jesus come to when he gave his disciples instruction to pray? Are there any “places” you’ve come upon recently where prayer is a much-needed friend?
Thursday
June 26, 2025
But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.
— Isaiah 40:31 (NLT)
“Git ‘er done.” You may have heard this humorous expression in the context of just getting something done without hemming, hawing, or procrastinating. I suppose there is some value to that approach. But it’s not always an appropriate ideology, especially when things are out of our control. Anxiety can be a cruel and misleading motivator. The Lord invites us to trust in him — to wait for and hope in him. This is not procrastination, it is active listening; it is faith and patience leading us to renewed strength and a rich inheritance.
What would you say is the hardest part of waiting upon the Lord? What does waiting look like?
What part, if any, do our actions play in our waiting? What do we find at the end of our hope in, our waiting for, and our trust in the Lord?
Friday
June 27, 2025
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
— Psalm 46:10 (NIV)
When we take the time in prayer to set aside our worries and distractions (think Martha) and begin to embrace stillness of soul, it is then that we give ourselves the opportunity to know God in all his sovereignty and wisdom; it is then that we begin to allow our imaginations to run wild and take hold of the expectation of what God is able to do. It is then we relinquish our throne to the only one worthy of royal rule. Stillness is a gift from God and one path to receiving it is by opening the door of our hearts by listening and praying, waiting for him, and being still. You know that you are not God, true? Then let God be God and you be still and know.
How does God’s promise that he will be exalted help us to still ourselves? Why do we, at times, find ourselves wanting control of our situations and circumstances? Can we really be in control?
What currently has you unsettled, or feeling riled and un-still? For you, what is the best time of the day to pray and to be still?