Preparation
Summer is flying by at a rapid clip and for many of us our thoughts are turning to fall. In Oceanside, school begins at the end of this month. For others, scheduling trips or planning to host friends and relatives for the upcoming holidays is just beginning. Whether it is school, holidays, or just the change in routines, the end of summer is usually a season of preparation.
The busy-ness of life can be all-consuming. All too often we find ourselves putting more thought into and spending more of our time preparing for the temporal events of this life and less and less time preparing our hearts and minds for eternity with God in Heaven.
When determining priorities, common sense indicates we should spend the most time on the things that will have the greatest and most lasting impact. Yet, for many of us, we “major in the minors” of life. We devote extraordinary amounts of time and energy to things that will have little or no impact from an eternal perspective.
What kind of car we drove, how big of a house we owned, what title we earned at work, the salary level we attained, and the influential people we knew will have no impact on whether or not we spend eternity with God in Heaven.
Therefore, it is important in this season of preparation to re-examine our priorities and to ask God’s help in re-setting our agenda to be more focused on the things that will draw us closer to Him and help us to bear “fruit that will last” for His Kingdom (John 15:1-8, 16). Jesus was concerned about our eternal life much more than our temporal life here on earth.
Later in John 17 Jesus is praying to the Father about His followers, “And this is the way to have eternal life – to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth… Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, for I have passed on to them the message you gave me. They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me” (John 17:3, 7-8).
We can only “accept” God’s message to us by hearing it, reading it, and studying it in His Word, the Bible. In writing to his protégé Timothy, the Apostle Paul reminds him that, “All Scripture [the Bible] is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
By spending more time in His Word and growing to know it better and better, God actually helps us re-orient our priorities and prepares us for eternal life, as well as aiding us through this life on earth. As this summer begins to draw to a close, thank God for sending Jesus to save us from our sins and to make it possible for us to inherit eternal life with Him in Heaven.
After Jesus rose from the dead and returned to Heaven, God sent His Spirit (the Holy Spirit) to live permanently in us. It is God’s Spirit that equips us to understand and apply God’s Word to our lives. We do not “go it alone”, but God goes with us, every hour, every day, helping us to make decisions and do the things that will prepare us for an incredible, jaw-dropping, glorious eternity with Him in Heaven.
I want to be prepared for that day, my first day in Heaven. With God’s help and through His grace I will be prepared, and you can be, too. Jesus died and rose again to prepare the way for us, won’t you spend some time preparing to be with Him there?
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