We prepare for whatever we think is important. Therefore, the converse is also true: if we haven’t prepared for something it’s a good indicator we didn’t think it to be that important.
Amos 4:12 (ESV) — 12 “Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!”
Are you prepared to meet God? The context is to prepare to meet God, the Judge. The people of God had forsaken the Lord and His commandments, so God sent His prophet Amos to call His people to prepare to meet Him in judgment. That is a good reminder to mankind in general because the only preparation to meet God as judge, is to be looking to Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation.
John 3:16–21 (ESV) — 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
All of us need to give heed to the warning and make preparation to meet God in judgment. And if by the grace of God, we have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we live in gratitude to God for His provision.
If that be the case, are you prepared to meet God in worship? It’s amazing how little time Christians give to preparing for worship week by week. Many people fill their weekends with so much activity, including staying up late on Saturday night, and find the Lord’s Day worship to be an inconvenience and a chore. Many people roll out of bed, get to the worship service late, take off quickly then complain they didn’t get anything out of the service but feel like they have given God “their due.” Wait a minute! If you were meeting with an important government official or a person of great fame, you’d be thinking about it ahead of time; probably planning what you’d wear, what you’ll say, and give some consideration of how you should act.
Hebrews 12:28–29 (ESV) — 28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
Maybe we should give a little more thought to making preparation to worship God by seeking God in prayer and His word through the week and by arranging our schedules with the focus on worship since we are meeting with the One Living and True God. The point is this: we make preparations all the time for things that we deem important. If we say that God is important, let’s make preparation to meet with Him.
Let’s also understand as we prepare for life, God is the one who has the final say in the matter. Many times we make preparations for a given path for our future and find out God has a different plan and we must submit to Him. That is an act of submission and worship, knowing His way is best.
Proverbs 16:1 (ESV) — 1 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
Proverbs 19:21 (ESV) — 21 Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
Are you prepared? If it’s important you’ll prepare for it. If you aren’t preparing for something, don’t fool yourself – your lack of preparation says it’s not all that important.
Here’s the good news. As in anything in which we realize we are coming up short, by God’s grace we can all make changes and begin today to take heed to the call of God to prepare to meet Him.
Godspeed,
Bob Brubaker
