by Martha June

“We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life”.

1 John 5:19-20

The idea of “getting ready” has been on my mind for a while now. In fact, back in November, I was sitting at home flipping through my Bible, and I came upon this verse in the book of Esther.

“Before a girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six months with perfumes and cosmetics. And this is how she would go to the king: Anything she wanted was given her from the harem to the king’s palace”.

Esther 2:12-13

If you are unfamiliar with the book of Esther, here is a quick synopsis. Esther was a young jewish girl chosen to be queen. She risked her life to save her people from certain death, and it worked. If you don’t know the story, I recommend reading it!

Pay special attention to how long it took Esther (and others) to prepare to meet the king.

TWELVE MONTHS!

That is a long time to prepare (essentially) for a date!

After reading that verse, I asked myself. How much time do I spend preparing for my future?

Currently I am in college, and arguably the entire premise of higher education is to prepare to be successful in “the real world”.

Outside of college classes, though, I have not made preparation a huge priority.

I then began thinking, how much time do I spend preparing for eternity with Jesus?

How I pursue a relationship with Christ on this side of heaven is going to effect our relationship through to eternity.

Listen, in full transparency I am have been known to procrastinate and “just wing it”.

However, the Bible often highlights the importance of preparation.

Noah prepared for a flood by building an ark. (Genesis 6:14)

Joshua and the Israelites prepared for their future by clearing out the Promised Land (Joshua 1)

Esther prepared to meet the King. (Esther 2)

John The Baptist prepared the way for Jesus to come. (Mark 1:1-8)

You get the picture.

In the past, I have been frustrated with relationships, goals, dreams, and everyday life.

It took looking back to realize that I have spent very little time preparing for any of those things.

Here is my question,

Are you preparing for what is to come?

Are you spending time with God?

Are you intentionally growing the relationship now so you can reap the benefits of it later?

What are you preparing for?

Life is not a math test.

Praise God for that!!

However like math life will test your endurance, your patience, your trust in the Lord, and your strength.

If you and I are not taking the time to prepare well for those “tests,” to quote Benjamin Franklin, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”.

“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes”.

Luke 12:35-36

Listen, runners train before a big race.

Musicians practice their set before preforming.

And professional athletes practice their sport in order to be ready for the next game.

Alexander Graham Bell once said “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success”.

So, are you ready?

Are you gearing up for the next step? The next goal? The next phase in life? Are you preparing to meet the King of Kings one day?

Only you can answer that question.

It is time to get ready for the days to come. But we can’t get ready without an idea of where God wants us to go.

So, are you asking God to give you His vision of the future?

Let’s make this a year of growth and “getting ready” for whatever comes next.

I almost wrote “and working out”.

But I am not going to get ahead of myself.

Sincerely,

in need of exercise

P.S. This was a topic that this past Passion Conference talked about too. If you have the ability to look up some of the speakers, I would! It is absolutely worth your time!