Are You Ready?

As we grow older, it seems like winter lasts longer and longer. When November comes and we celebrate Thanksgiving, we know what is next: Christmas, and then cold weather. We know by our calendar that it is coming. Then, as the days go by, we long for spring. We look for signs of it coming, but it still seems so far off. Then it happens, the air seems to get a tad bit warmer, the snow melts, and we begin to see buds on the trees.

After Jesus entered Jerusalem at Passover, He did a lot of teaching in the short amount of time before His crucifixion. What we will see in the book of Matthew is that the vast majority of His teachings were about His return. Chapter 24:42-44, “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. 43 But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 44 For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”

Spiritually speaking, it’s as if we are living in winter for months. We read the scriptures, and we see the promise of the Lord that He is coming back, but it has been so long. The warning is for us to stay alert. We are always called to look for and be prepared for the day that He will be coming back for us.

There are several actions to this preparation. First, we prepare for His coming by reaching the lost so that they will not be left behind. We must also prepare by living lives that always bring glory and honor to our Lord. We live in such a way that when Jesus does return, we will not be embarrassed. This is so important that Jesus speaks of this topic for two chapters. We see this in chapters 24 and 25. We are warned that there will be some who will try to mislead us. Jesus tells us that there will be wars and rumors of wars. We read that there will be famines and earthquakes. These, Jesus says, are just the birthing pains.

We are also warned that as the day of His return draws nearer, Christians will be hated and most people’s love will grow cold. These are all signs that I think we are beginning to see with more frequency. The warning is that we may think that it will get worse before He comes. This is dangerous because we don’t know that. That is why Jesus gives us the warning to just be prepared and to be ready. We all have loved ones that we want to see go to heaven. Let’s go get 'em, we are running out of time.  We may not know exactly when, but we do know His coming is closer today than it was yesterday.