Prepare yourself

Hi how are you today? I am well. Work has been a lot stressful but hopefully it will settle soon. How was your week?

This week I want to blog on preparing yourself. At the moment, our part of the state is on cyclone watch. This is very unusual for where I live so most of us don’t really know how to prepare. In actual fact, most of us have probably never been through a cyclone. So we have no experience, we just need to research and do the best we can.

This is how some of us act in our Christian walk. We either don’t prepare for circumstances happening in our lives that catch us off guard or we don’t really know what to do.

In this year of renewal, I believe it is time for us to prepare. Prepare for what?

1. Revival
2. Jesus’ return
3. Persecution
4. Last days

So how can we adequately prepare for these and are the preparations the same. I believe they are similar.

The first thing we need to do is make sure we have a relationship with God. How do we do that? Romans 10: 9 to 10 tells us and in the Message Bible, it states:

It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”

We need to believe that Jesus died on the cross for us so we could be set right with God and then say it with our mouths.

The second thing is read the Bible. A verse is found in Psalm 119 in the Message Bible that sums up why this is important:

^{9 -11} How can a young person live a clean life?
    By carefully reading the map of your Word.
I’m single-minded in pursuit of you;
    don’t let me miss the road signs you’ve posted.
I’ve banked your promises in the vault of my heart
    so I won’t sin myself bankrupt.
Be blessed, God;
    train me in your ways of wise living.

The Bible is the map we follow in our Christian living.

The third step is talk to God like you would a friend. He wants you to commune with Him.

The fourth step is to ensure that you are walking with the Holy Spirit. There is a story about the virgins who prepared and those who didn’t. The difference was that the wise virgins walked with the Spirit of God and were filled with Him. The story is found in Matthew 25 and in the Message Bible, it states:

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ² Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. ³ Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. ⁵ But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

⁶ “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’⁷ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.

¹¹ “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying,‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ ¹² But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

¹³ “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”

The wise virgins took extra oil. Oil can be representative of the Holy Spirit and it can also represent the light of God within us and the result of the fruit of the Spirit working in our lives. It denotes a close relationship with God.

Only those virgins with the extra oil were invited and accepted into the marriage feast of the Lamb.

So as we walk in renewal this year, let us make sure that our walk and our relationship with God is on track. For those areas where it isn’t, let’s humble ourselves before God, repent and seek His forgiveness. Then arise, and walk daily knowing that God is with you and desires a relationship with you.

You can do it and so can I. Let’s walk strong this year with God.

Bless you and keep living the life God intended for you.

Karen