(Preparing spiritually)

I have no idea if we here on earth have only another year left... or a hundred years left... or even a thousand years left. There are some days when I am weary, and I find myself wishing that Christ would come back now to take us all. Then there are days when I love the world and everything in it, and I'm SO glad to be a part of it that I hope I live to be one-hundred.

There are several pieces of scripture that tell us to remain watchful. If you haven't yet seen my URL, I've named it for that: remaining watchful. What does that mean? The Bible tells us many times to prepare and be ready. How do we do that? Being ready does not mean building a bunker underground to survive whatever might be awaiting us in the future. It does not mean quit your job and go into hiding. It does not mean give up all free time to pray every minute of every hour.

Jesus speaks many parables about "being ready for the master" or "awaiting the bridegroom" (read Matthew 24 and 25)

How do we prepare? What do we do? Here are words that exactly give us our instructions:

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (Colossians 4:2-6)

And here:

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. (Romans 12:9-11)

And here:

"Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man." (Luke 21:34-36)

So what does all that really mean?

It means always working and striving to be worthy of Christ. It's as plain and simple as that. Atheists always say, "Well, if Christ is really coming back, why didn't he just tell us when?" Think about that for a minute... If God had given us the exact day and time that Christ was coming back for us -- and if salvation and true repentance is our ticket to the Kingdom of Heaven -- then wouldn't everyone run wild, doing whatever they wanted, up until the very end... and then hurry up and pray for salvation and forgiveness at the very last minute? Sure we would. If we knew that Christ was coming back in (say, for hypothetical example) May of 2025 -- and you had to pray for forgiveness and salvation sometime before He comes back in order to have life in heaven -- most people would throw caution to the wind while they could, and then "turn good" at the end, cleaning themselves up at the last minute.

It's like the parents who go away for a few days, leaving the teenager alone. Of course, no parent is going to say to the teen, "Okay... we'll be back exactly at 6:00pm Sunday night." Guess what? That teenager will probably have a big, wild party the night before and then spend the next day cleaning everything up so that just when the parents come in the door, everything is perfect. But if the parents said, "Hey, we're going to come home when you least expect it, so you had better be on your best behavior," then the teen will probably think twice about having a party. He'll be too worried about being caught off-guard by his parents.

Does that make sense? So Christ is telling us to be patient and always be ready. It's the same reason we don't ever know the hour of our death -- if we did, we'd party like wild up until the night before, and then pray for forgiveness to be saved. That's just not how it works. We do not have the authority or permission to go nuts and do whatever we want in life and then just "fix it" at the end. The thing is, you might be someone who gets to be here when Christ comes back. On the other-hand, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow. Putting your salvation off for another day/week/month/year can be dangerous -- you may not actually get the chance. You've got to do it now. And if you're already saved, then you have to maintain your faith. Always be watchful and prepared. It's hard sometimes -- especially in this day and age. Jesus often talked about keeping "oil in the lamps." Meaning we should always be living as if we could meet him any day, any hour.

I'll give you a good example: Just recently my hubby and I went out to eat. On the way to the restaurant, we HAD to get to the bank before they closed to make a deposit. My hubby had a particularly frustrating day, and of course one of the major intersection lights on our busy street was out. Traffic was backed up for miles, and people were supposed to yield and treat it like a four-way stop. And of course, they didn't. People were racing through, not being polite, not caring. We almost got hit twice. Then we were gridlocked at the next intersection, where we had to turn right. Some woman purposely cut us off, causing us to swerve into the curb and up onto the grass. After we went to the bank and ate a quick meal at a casual dining restaurant, we went out to the car. There was another car that had pulled up behind us, who was loading something into the car next to us. We weren't sure what was going on, but they obviously knew each other, and the guy was chatting with the woman as he unloaded boxes. I wasn't worried about it -- the guy who was partially parked behind us saw us get into our car and saw that we were waiting. But he kept unloading boxes and chatting. Then when all of the boxes were unloaded, he stood there and chatted with the gal. My hubby started to get steamed. He was literally ready to get out of the car and have it out with the guy. It had been at least five minutes... the guy knew we wanted to back out... and yet he stood there chatting. Finally my husband just backed out, not caring whether or not he hit the guy. The guy got all upset and flustered and hurried up to get in his car to move it, giving my hubby dirty looks. THEN, to top it all off, when we got home there was a neighbor's car parked just behind our spot in the condo driveway which prevented us from being able to pull into our regular (own) spot.

All of these things happened within an hour or so, and let me tell you, my husband was MORE than mad. He was steaming. He was cursing and angry and ready to duke it out with someone. I even have to agree that the whole thing was so particularly frustrating, yet I worked to calm him down. He just looked at me, fuming. "How can I be a Christian?" he asked. "How? I cannot take it anymore. I am about to blow. People are so rude and inconsiderate. No one is polite... all they care about is themselves... no one has any manners. I never would've parked in someone's spot, or cut someone off in gridlocked traffic, or blocked someone in at a restaurant parking lot. What is with people? I can't take it anymore, and I'm not even going to try."

All I could say to him was this: It's obvious that we are nearing the End Times. I'm not saying that the world is going to end tomorrow. But we are definitely in a time of greed, callousness, lawlessness, selfishness, materialism, sexuality and lack of values and morals. (There are also other signs of the world nearing the End Times, but that's a whole other post.) Just because the masses all act that way does not mean that we can (and should) throw up our hands and give up. Just because the bulk of the American population acts in that manner and is not "watching" for Christ by being loving and obedient does not mean we should stoop to that level. Hello? Peer pressure at its finest, hosted by Satan himself! God is counting on us to lead by example, and to not give into it. No way should we let the oil in our lamps run out just because everyone else has given up and decided to toss their lamps aside. It's hard, but we have got to keep those things lit. Meaning, we can not just throw our faith aside and live in sin, callousness, anger, lewdness, hatred and idolatry simply because everyone else is. We can't give up on God or ignore Christ or decide that we'd rather worship ourselves (or money) just because everyone else is doing it. The gate is narrow, my friends. And it's not narrow because God only wants a few people to come through it. Unfortunately, it's narrow because there's isn't need for a wide one -- there simply aren't enough people. It's so sad, and very frustrating. But it shouldn't deter our faith and trust in Christ.

More importantly, one cannot forget that Satan rules the earth right now. Remember the story of Job? He was a good, strong, faithful, humble servant of the Lord. God was proud of him. Satan came to the Lord and pretty much said, "Hey, Lord... you might think this dude is faithful and strong, but I bet if we took away all that he had, he'd be cursing you. I'm sure that some hard times would cause him to lose his faith." The Lord was so sure of Job's faith that he agreed to let Satan test him. And so Satan did. He took his livestock and crops and even slain his children. And what did Job do? Sure, he mourned and wailed and felt horrible. But he still prayed. He kept his faith. And for that strong faith, Job received great reward.

And so I tried to tell my husband that the world around us is just going to get worse. People are going to become more greedy... more arrogant... and more selfish. It's up to us to be strong and faithful in the Lord, watching and waiting while remaining sure of ourselves. We HAVE to find a way to not only keep on going, but keep going with our hearts full of love, grace, forgiveness, respect and generosity. Even if it means searching high and low for something that will bring a smile to our face... or to distract us from our frustrations... or to bring us strength when we are feeling weak.

The best tools to find that are 1) prayer and 2) scripture. Sure, taking a walk or breathing deeply can help calm you down in the immediate sense. If you're ready to break down and sob or if you want to hit something, then a quiet walk in the park or a few deep breaths are good measures to take. But in order to remain watchful and to keep your heart and soul worthy of Christ, you'll need better armor than that. Our pastor says that to fight a spiritual battle, you must use spiritual weaponry. That means prayer and scripture. You cannot fight the invisible, spiritual battle with your fists.

Perhaps God is letting Satan test you, and He's up there in Heaven rooting for you, confident in your faith and strength. Or, perhaps there is no test right now, but you have to deal with the greedy, selfish, faithless people in the world today that surround you and stress you out. Whatever it might be, God is on your side and has given you tools to get through it.

In the grand scheme of things, giving up or getting angry for a few minutes of satisfaction or respite is not worth giving up all of eternity for. You have got to remember that our time here is just a speck in the big timeline of eternal life. Everything will one day right itself. Justice will come... relief is on its way... the Lord is preparing our rooms in Heaven for us. Be patient, be strong, be kind, be forgiving. Love thy neighbor, even if it's the hardest thing to do right now. It will be worth it. And the Lord can then say onto you when He sees you, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!" (Matthew 25:23)