Prepare Him Room: Book Review

 

I like to be prepared for upcoming events, tasks, and responsibilities on my calendar. I write lists, make sure the grocery shopping is done ahead of time, and figure out how to get my kids to all their activities. But how often do I consider preparing my heart to make room for Christ before and during the rush of Christmas? 

In Prepare Him Room: A Daily Advent Devotional  Susie Larson invites you to give God space in your holiday season, ponder the miracle of Christ, and respond to His work in your life.

You prepare a way for the Lord in your life when you give Him room to work on you and in you—to change you from the inside out. Are you ready to turn from your selfish, sinful ways to follow Jesus on His terms? Are you ready for such a radical lifestyle change? This is not your work. You can’t do this for yourself. It’s the work of Christ within you—your hope of glory. 

This devotional walks you through 24 chapters in the gospel of Luke, one day at a time. While learning about Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection Larson encourages readers to allow who Christ is to transform their lives.

 

 

I expected this to be a typcial decorative-type Christmas devotional I keep on my endtable, but  this turned out to be much more than I hoped for. Larson’s solid understanding of the Bible and her abiility to draw meaningful insights made this devotional one I wanted to dig into deeper. I plan on reading this a second time and keeping it to read each year.

Each day ends with a Prepare Him Room Prayer and a call to Look Up and fast from things like, intimidation, worry, and negativity. 

 I highlited so many great quotes. Here are some of my favorites:

Instead of numbing your pain and setting aside your heartbreak until after the holiday season, give your burdens to Jesus as you celebrate Him this Christmas.  Ask HIm to show you what He’s subtracting from you that He may add and multiply His influence in You! 

When God does a new thing in us, the enemy is often right there to accuse us of our weakness, our past, and our frailties. But these are precisely why we need a Savior. Praise God. We have one!

We follow Him on His terms because He knows what we cannot know this side of heaven. So we trust Him. And enjoy Him. And we celebrate the fact that by some divine miracle, we know and are intimately known by the one who put the stars in place.

If you could peel back the sky and see into the spiritual realm, you’d see a cosmic spiritual battle between light and darkness, between God’s warring angels and Satan’s scheming demons.

Over and over again Jesus showed himself to be strong and gentle, patient and powerful, tried and true. 

Each devotion  inspired me to honor God in how I think about and celebrate Christmas. 

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review