Preparation

Are you prepared? Prepared for what, you say. Are you prepared for the Lord? Have you made a place for Him today? Have you prepared yourself to be His bride? Are you ready for Him to come to you as your Bridegroom? Am I talking about the rapture here? Am I talking about going to heaven? That is part of it, but are we making a place for the Lord Jesus Christ to be a part of our lives every day, to feel welcome in our lives, to be the One that is # 1 in our lives?.

That is a question I am not only asking you, but I am also asking myself. What is God’s place in my life, in my heart? Is He only the Savior of my life or is He the Lord of my life? These are valid questions to be asking ourselves. If Jesus is only the Savior of our lives, we will go to heaven but we will not have allowed Him to be in charge of our lives. As God’s children, we are to allow Him to be in charge of our lives, to be the One Who helps us make decisions, the One Who gives us wise counsel, to be the One Who helps us to accomplish our destinies, fulfill our dreams that He gives us.

When Jesus is Lord of our lives, we have given Him the freedom to guide us, correct us, direct us, encourage us, and steer us in the right direction. He has a perfect will for each of us that He wants to accomplish, but He cannot do that if we are bent on “doing it our way.”

What does preparation involve? It is a daily thing. We prepare for the Lord being in charge of our day by starting with thanksgiving and praise to Him for a new day, for a new opportunity to love Him and to experience His love for us. We enter into His Presence as we shower, shave, put on makeup, eat our breakfast. We communicate with Him. This communication is called prayer. We read His Word and learn more about Him every day. We believe His Word. We receive His Word. We confess His Word. We talk about His Word. We hear anointed preachers and teachers of His Word. In other words, we give our top priority to Him and His Word as the start for our day.

I can tell you from personal experience that the day will go much more smoothly when Jesus is first in our routine, when He is a part of the start for our day. There is something about that early morning time with Him that nothing else can match. And let me tell you, I, as well as you, face that daily struggle of all these other things screaming for attention first thing in the morning. My life right now is one in which I have to make a quality decision that I will first spend time in the Word and with Him every day. There are days when I don’t do that because I have an early appointment or I just feel that I must make that early departure for the store to avoid the crowds. Believe me, I know the struggle everyone has. And if you are a working person and not retired, it is even more of a choice to make the Lord #1, first thing in the morning. It means less sleep because of the extra ½ hour to hour that it takes to pray and read the Word.

I know that the Lord is calling each of us to a life of intimacy with Him, of preparation to be His bride every day. As we look at the book of Esther, we see that she was prepared for the king with oils and perfumes and the preparation time was vitally important for her meeting with the king. I believe it was one year that she prepared. How much more important it is for us to prepare for our Bridegroom, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

The greatest preparation the Word and prayer does for us is to move us into that arena of love that is beyond all comprehension. He is desiring to lavish His love on each one of us, but if we are too busy, then it is difficult for us to focus and receive. His intimate love for us is only to be experienced in the inner court of His Presence, in the quiet of our time set aside for Him. He is always there. We are the ones who are not there. There is a vacant seat, which we leave and tell Him that we will catch Him later. And “later” does not come for that day because at the end of the day we are tired and fall asleep telling Him that we will see Him in the morning.

We live in a society and a world that is full of busyness and “hurry-up and get going” mentality. And we hurry up, only to have to wait in traffic, to have to wait in line at the store, to wait for appointments. I heard a minister say last week that the greatest deception of satan right now is the distractions that he puts in front of us. He jumps up and down and says: Look over here. Look over here, Hey, you, look over here. I am trying to get your attention. Our greatest accomplishment is to ignore him and do what the Word of God tells us to do.

This teaching comes from my heart as I also am learning to turn a deaf ear to those distractions and turn my eyes away from the busyness of my life. All these natural things will still be here when we are gone. Yes, we do have to take care of our homes and families and work at jobs, but there is a higher call of waiting in His Presence, and we must make time for the Master. Why? The Master, the Bridegroom, is calling us into His Presence. Will we heed the call? Or will we put Him off for another day, another time? It is our choice every day. Sometimes it appears to be a tough choice, because of our full plates. But the choice is ours. If we put Him first, we will be rewarded with our time seemingly multiplied for the other things we have to do, for which we have responsibility. Let’s purpose to make the right choice each day, the choice for Jesus 1st.