WEDNESDAY March 5th
Now, as I continue with the word prepare, some of the scriptures will not actually have the word prepare in them, but will have a connotation that should prompt us to preparation, and today I take us to some verses from Luke 21:34-36
‘“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”’
I have already mentioned our need to be prepared to meet with God, and that Jesus is preparing a place for us, and we know from that same scripture that Jesus will come to take us to be with him, for he is coming again (John14).
Now the words from John 14 and from our text today in Luke 21 all fall into the conversations that Jesus had with the disciples before he went to Calvary, and he is giving a warning that we need to be prepared for when he comes again.
Matthew has recorded more of the conversations that Jesus had, and in particular with the parable of the ten virgins, where the whole theme of this parable is for the need of being ready or prepared for Jesus coming again, and in chapter 25:13 he records Jesus saying these words ‘Watch therefore, for you do now neither the day nor the hour’.
I mentioned in the first of these devotions that there are those things I prepare for more than I would for other things, and perhaps as Christians we are guilty of not ensuring that we are preparing enough or even prepared enough for the sudden return of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can almost live as if we have forgotten that he is coming again, or even as if it is not going to happen, and so we get all caught up with so much that this world has to offer rather than ensuring that we have our lamps, using the analogy from Matthew 25, trimmed and burning.
Now, within the context of this devotion it doesn’t matter how we interpret where and when everything fits into the chronology of the return of Christ, the thing that matters the most is that we are prepared and ready and not getting weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the cares of this life but rather that we are looking up, raising our heads, for our redemption is drawing near.
As we read in Hebrews 9:28 that Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. Are you prepared for and waiting for his return?