Be prepared—all dressed and ready!

Luke 12:35-38

“Be prepared—all dressed and ready— for your Lord’s return from the wedding feast. Then you will be ready to open the door and let him in the moment he arrives and knocks. There will be great joy for those who are ready and waiting for his return. He himself will seat them and put on a waiter’s uniform and serve them as they sit and eat! He may come at nine o’clock at night—or even at midnight. But whenever he comes, there will be joy for his servants who are ready!

Food for thought!

This passage has two senses. In its narrower sense it refers to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ; in its wider sense it refers to our death. In all cases there is praise for the servant who is ready. Since none of us can tell the day or the hour when eternity will invade time and summons will come, we do well to take the advice of Jesus most serious.  How, then, would we like God to find us?

We would like him to find us with our work completed. Life for so many of us is filled with loose ends. There are things undone and things half done; things put off and things not even attempted. As an exercise, ask yourself from time to time what you are doing to prepare yourself for the Lord. Be established and fully committed to Jesus. Be willing to stand firm with your Christ given convictions and principles. Be prepared to stand alone if necessary because of them. Live in the present.

Imagine this: “If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with U.S. Dollars in the amount of $86,400, and every evening cancelled whatever part of the amount you failed to use, what would you do? Of course, you would draw out every cent of the deposit! Well, time is just such a bank. Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off as lost whatever of those seconds you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries no balance forward to the next day. It allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. Each night it burns the record for the day. “If you fail to use the day’s deposit, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against tomorrow. You must live in the present—on today’s deposit. Invest in it so as to get the most out of it in health, happiness and service.”

"Be prepared—all dressed and ready— for your Lord’s return."