Have you any room for Jesus?

I think the inn keeper got a bad rap. He didn't know he was turning away God's Son, and technically he didn't turn Him away. He made room for Jesus, just not in a nice warm room where you'd put guests. He sent Mary and Joseph to the stable, so he did make room and didn't turn Him away.

  We who profess to follow Jesus and claim Him as Savior and Lord can tend to gather our righteous robes around us as we think on the inn keeper. He didn't make room for Jesus, but we did and do. He resides in our hearts. We didn't turn Him away. There's even a song about it:

Have you any room for Jesus,
He who bore your load of sin?
As He knocks and asks admission,
Sinners, will you let Him in?

Refrain

Room for Jesus, King of Glory!
Hasten now His Word obey;
Swing the heart’s door widely open,
Bid Him enter while you may.


  That's a good song, and we don't sing it often enough. Maybe because we in the church feel we have made room, and it is a song to save for the sinners.

  But do we truly make room for Him? Even the inn keeper let Him in, he just didn't give Him his best. How many of us do that? It is wonderful to focus on Jesus at Christmas, to lay aside a day a week to rest, go to church, and spend more time with Him, even more wonderful to set aside a time in the morning or evening to pray and read our Bibles......but what about the rest of the year, the rest of the week, the rest of the day?

 There's another verse of that song that speaks to me:

Room for pleasure, room for business,
But for Christ the Crucified,
Not a place that He can enter,
In the heart for which He died?

  We live in a pleasure mad society. Everything is fast and drive through. We have all kinds of electronics and devices to make our lives faster, easier, and simpler..... but they don't. They instead make life more hectic and fast-paced, and too many Christians relegate Jesus to the stable, instead of giving Him the best room in our heart, the best times of our day, the best part of our lives.

  Occasionally I pause and look back, and am amazed at how fast life has gone, how fast it is going. I don't feel I have accomplished much of anything for God. It's a battle to stay on the right path, and exhausting enough fighting depression, discouragement, and other battles.... I go to church, I pray and read my Bible and a devotional, but am I really making room for Jesus in everything I do, or do I stick Him in the stable and go out and worship Him when it is convenient, and make that small space for Him so I feel I am doing my part as a Christian?

  Our hearts don't have rooms, but we tend to compartmentalize our lives. There's work, church, home, time with friends, leisure time, and time to spend with God. Yet if we do it right, God should be in everything, all compartments of our lives, every day, hour, and second. Jesus should affect every part of our life and we should seek His will in all we do, not put Him in the stable of our life and pull Him out when we need Him.

  The question,"have you any room for Jesus", isn't only for those who haven't invited Him into their heart and life. It is also for all who claim Him as Savior and Lord. Don't just make time for Him at Christmas, but every day and all day all year long.