Text: Luke 12:35-40
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.
Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
Preparation is essential to Christian living. If you are unprepared on how to handle and respond to trials and temptations which undoubtedly come your way, how would you ever feel equipped to stand firm in righteousness? When a person is at alert for something coming his way, he is never taken by surprise.
Apostle Paul expounded upon this idea as such: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it (1 Corinthians 9:24). If an athlete or a soldier is not properly trained, he or she is not prepared for action and subject to injury or even death. Why then do we believe we can stray from following God’s teachings and not succumb to the same painful fate.
Remember the end of a thing is better than the beginning thereof. Stay at alert! Beware of the devices of the devil, keep pressing towards the mark of the high calling. In regard of the illustration of servants awaiting their master, Jesus was teaching the people to be prepared and be ready at all times awaiting his coming. He is coming like a thief in the night, only those christians who have their fire burning will not be caught unprepared.
Go and settle everything that might keep you from answering Him immediately when He comes. Do every clean up that needs to be done, now! We are to be of good patience, endurance and long-suffering, in our wait we should not get weary.
Conclusion: The Lord is coming. And He desires to find us watching when He comes so, be on your guard. He is coming with something beautiful. watch and pray.
