Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room

Hi friends:

 

Joy to the world; the Lord is come;

Let Earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room!

 

But how can my heart prepare Him room?

 

The heart is not primarily something from a Hallmark movie (even a Christmas Hallmark movie), a rom-com, or Valentine's Day. The heart is the core of a person; the seat of thoughts, will, emotions, faith, intentions, purpose, imagination, reason, understanding, grief, connections, perceptions, decisions, affections, and desires.

 

A heart can easily become brittle, cold, numb, dry, stubborn, guarded, and closed. I don't know about you, but my heart gets exhausted, cluttered, jumbled, over-scheduled, overloaded, and overwhelmed. Like a new word I found this week: Exhausterwhelmulated, describing the intense state of being exhausted, overwhelmed, and overstimulated all at once—a feeling of being too tired to rest, too stressed to function, and too wired to calm down, common in modern life. 

 

But an open heart can also enjoy rest, exude peace, celebrate joy, experience and extend love, embrace freedom, calm anxiety, and develop great wisdom. It is beyond essential that I present my entire life to my Creator for some much-needed open-heart surgery.

 

I have this weird job description in Psalm One Ministries: Help people see the One Who is Invisible. El Roi. The God Who Sees Me.

 

Moses “persevered because he saw Him who is invisible.” (Hebrews 11:27)

 

“And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:7-9)

 

My goal is to provide space, time, and direction for men and women to prepare Him room. To be discipled by Jesus and the Word instead of social media, peer pressure, and opinions. Learning to tend our souls well. I teach very countercultural things like reducing distraction instead of adding stimulation, uni-tasking instead of multitasking, integrating Sabbath and real rest instead of burning the candle at both ends, slowing down to listen carefully enough so our “ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left”. (Isaiah 30:21) That’s awfully hard to do at 100 miles per hour in the middle of the “muchness and manyness”, noise and clatter, anger and splintering, and remaining logged into a chaotic world 24/7/365.

 

“But in the spiritual life, the word discipline means ‘the effort to create some space in which God can act.’ Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you're not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life; discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn't planned or counted on.” (Henri Nouwen)

 

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)

 

If I don't take time to sit at Jesus’s feet, how can I guide others to prepare Him room? If I don't pull away to be with Jesus and Jesus alone, my ministry will flow out of my own severely limited strength, faulty wisdom, and earthly advice, instead of the rivers of living water that flow out of a vital connection to God Himself.

 

I aim to take an extended prayer pilgrimage at some point each year, celebrate Sabbath each week, and also set aside January 1st as a day with the Lord. Ministry has no closure, so I need to stop, dial way down, let the dust settle, and pray through all God has been showing me in the past year, then lay my future plans before Him, bouncing everything against God and giving Him full detour and veto power. Sometimes we think we are so generous to say, “Lord, I am willing to go with either Plan A or B. Look how much I trust you!” I can almost hear God chuckling, saying, “My dear child, I am sending you out on Plan Q. You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

 

“Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.’ (James 4:13-15)

 

If 2020 taught us anything, it is that God alone knows what lies ahead. “So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)   

 

God keeps whispering to me, “Say YES!” and “Adventure lies ahead” (which both excites and frightens those who know some of my past adventures). If I walk through every door He seems to be opening, I will cover a lot of ground in 2026.

 

I need faithful friends who will pray for me on the road, in the air, and underwater. I’ll share photos and stories. You can have a front row seat to divine appointments and wacky encounters with lots of characters. I’ll take you out into the deep ocean, through jungles, across the savannah, along cliffs and over mountains. We’ll hang out with koalas, sea turtles, elephants, octopuses, mantas, rhinos, sheep, lions, birds, dolphins, kangaroos, giraffes, sharks, and whatever else God brings along.

 

If you would like to come along vicariously, (1) join WhatsApp and (2) reply with “Adventure Prayer Team” before Monday. 

 

Let every heart prepare Him room as we head into a new year:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope to see you somewhere along the way. May Christmas hold unexpected blessings and meaning for you this year!

 

Much love,

Linda

 

psalm one ministries

- MASON, Ohio -