Available: Prepared and Ready to Do the Lord’s Bidding

Are we a prepared people, ready to do the Lord’s bidding? Fixed on serving Him rather than ourselves and our own little plans in our own little worlds? God desires for us to be a part of a much bigger and greater plan than our minds can conceive or our ears have ever heard. And He has called us to be a prepared people. We are not merely here to entertain ourselves to death. We are to “grow up” in Him Who is the Head and walk as He walked. 

The Apostle Paul writes of his own life, encouraging us to do likewise in 1 Corinthians 11:1 (NIV): “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” We should ask ourselves, do we leave the aroma of Jesus in our encounters or the stench of death? Do we look and act and speak more like us or the Master? It matters. In all four Gospels - in some variation - Jesus tells us to deny self, to take up our crosses and follow Him. Luke’s version adding “daily” in Luke 9:23-25 (NIV): Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” What good is it indeed? We are not our own. We have been bought by the highest price of the blood of Jesus and we are to honor the Lord in our thoughts, words and deeds.

God rarely calls the unprepared. We are to get our gifts ready and God will use them for His glory and for our good. We have all been gifted by the Savior – every.one.of.us - and His desire is for us to use these giftings, bringing Him glory and us good. We are all Esthers – in such a time as this, Amen? And He has a plan for each of our lives and they are to prosper and not harm, plans that give us hope and a future. We can trust Him with our lives. Whenever we are doing anything for Christ, it is for our good – whether we can ascertain this presently or not, it is still true. Jesus tells us in Mark 9:41 (NIV): I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward. Our Lord speaks a solemn affirmation in the phrase “I tell you the truth” – even down to the smallest act of hospitality to the least of these. Ultimately, all things done for the Lord Jesus will be well recompensed in the Kingdom of God which, of course, is eternal. We will never outgive the Lord Jesus either. Whatever “meager” sacrifice we might make in the present will be so recompensed in the future that it truly is not a sacrifice at all. He desires for us to bear much fruit demonstrating Whose we are and Whom we serve.