Prepare For The Light

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You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1151. Today's Devo is called Preparing the Light. Hey there. We're the Alesses, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time.

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That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional podcast. Well, good morning, good afternoon.

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Hello, everybody. Hope you guys have enjoyed your holiday season.

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And now we are kicking off the month of December. And this is just really special because now we're in Christmas time and now it's Christmas mode and everybody's got their Christmas tree up and everybody's getting all the peppermint, spiced mocha, whatever you call it. And we are getting ourselves ready for a wonderful, wonderful Christmas season. And I know we're all excited about it.

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I'm Gabby, your host for the week. And this is a really, really significant month we're going into because although we're coming to the end of the year, we're also celebrating the time of the year where we get to remember the birth of Jesus.

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And I think for all of us as believers, you know, this, this time of year is exciting because you're wanting to get gifts, you're wanting to tell your kids about Santa or the elf on the shelf. So you're getting all of the fun, exciting things out of the way and you're trying to make that happen. But also we want to remember, as everybody knows, the reason for the season. And so with that, we want to do something fun for the My Morning Devo. We want to kind of go into each part of the Christmas story and how Jesus got to the earth. Why did Jesus come down to the earth? So we are going to read along. We've picked out some scriptures that we think you're really going to enjoy that talks about pre Jesus, present Jesus and just gives you that full picture of the Christmas story. But we're going to be reading from John 1 today and we're going to jump into it.

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1 through 5 says this. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

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And the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. And without him, nothing was made that has been made. That is like such a poetic little line right there. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. I love this verse 5 the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it before. We continue reading.

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That's a word for somebody today. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

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Guys, Jesus equals the light. The light equals Jesus. What we're talking about here is Jesus. And what we're seeing is that Jesus lights up the darkness. And wherever there is darkness, Jesus can light that up. And the beautiful. The beautiful message here is that Jesus has overcome that darkness. If there's darkness in your life, Jesus has overcome it. And what we're beginning to see in this story is that the world at the time was very dark. There was a lot of darkness in the land. But Jesus was about to enter the scene. All right, I want to jump to verse 14. It says this. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father full of grace and truth. John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, this is he of whom I said, he who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. From his fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. So John is actually breaking apart. You know what the Jews have seen. You've seen Moses. He gave you the law. But Jesus is going to come. Or grace and truth are going to come through Jesus. But verse 18 is something I want to look at today. It says this. No one has ever seen God but the one and only Son, who himself God and is at the Father's sight, has made him known. No one has ever seen God but the one and only Son, who himself is God and is at the Father's side, has made him known. I think this is such a beautiful message that we're getting here, especially during this Christmas season. Because if we're honest, we can get so distracted with buying gifts for people, going to the big dinners, having the Secret Santa and the white elephant at our office, that we forget the whole message behind Christmas. And that message is that God made himself known to his people through his son, Jesus. Verse 18 says, no one had ever seen God. Even back when Moses was around, Moses asked to see the face of God. And God said, you can't handle seeing my face. That's something you cannot see.

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Humankind cannot see that. And so what this is saying here is nobody has seen God, but we're experiencing the grace and the truth from God through his Son, Jesus Christ. And so this is a beautiful reminder for all of us this season that we get to see God through his Son. And so let us draw near to the sun this season. Let us draw near to the light that is Jesus. Let us look to Jesus, the life of Jesus, and let that show us the Father. And so now, as we are preparing ourselves for Christmas, prepare your way, prepare your heart for the light of Jesus this season. Jesus is the light. Whatever season you're walking through, whatever situation you're walking through, know that the light of Jesus. When Jesus is involved, he can light up the darkest of situations. And when we look to Jesus, we are seeing our Father. We can see God through him. So that's what we're looking at.

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Jesus. We're preparing our hearts. We preparing the way, we're preparing ourselves for the light that is to come. And that light is Jesus. So let's pray over it. Lord, I just thank you for today. We thank you for this Christmas season. We thank you that even though we can celebrate with our family and our friends, we still have a deep reason for this season and that is Jesus. We thank you for the power of Jesus, that even in the darkest of situations, Jesus can enter in and light it up. We thank you that God, we've gotten to see you. We can see you through your son and even reading your word and experiencing a relationship with Jesus, it brings us closer to you and God. As we enter this new reading plan, as we enter this Christmas season and we listen to all these devotionals, I pray that all of us can start preparing our hearts and we can start to learn the real reason of Christmas and we can come together spiritually. We can add to our knowledge, Lord, the real reason for Christmas. And in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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So there you have it, your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend. Leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.