"Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning. Then you will be like servants waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once."
~ Luke 12:35-36
Yes, He equips the called.
However, we are also responsible to be prepared, to make ready.
If He calls you to give a financial gift, are you financially fit? Will you be ready?
If He calls you to minister to people in a remote place, to be his hands and feet somewhere you can only walk to reach, are you physically fit, capable, and able to heed the call?
That’s not to say you have to be perfect. But we do need to be diligent. We need to pay attention, and when we notice something slipping spiritually, emotionally, physically, financially, environmentally, you name it, we have to take responsibility and do something about it. It doesn't have to be made perfect in a moment, but it needs our care and tending.
You know that whole, when we do our best, God shows up with the rest thing? In order for Him to fill the gap, we have to do our part. In whatever context, by whatever means.
So, how is your fit-ness? Do you have well-rounded capacity?
Where are the gaps that might need a little T.L.C.?
I was thinking about this recently while mustering for my morning walk. God is not likely to call me to climb Everest (although there was a time I would have loved nothing more,) after the accident and all of its consequences, that would be Biblical miracle territory.
But, it’s still my job to make ready, to do whatever I can to take responsibility and be prepared, be it walking, oil, or alertness with an attitude of thanksgiving.
I... you... we all must do our best. We must be aware and diligent. We must be willing to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps when the Holy Spirit whispers and points out an area that needs attention. We discern and we obey. We respond. We DO something.
God knows our hearts. He knows where we need help and He is there for that.
Yet, it's a partnership. He doesn't do all of the work.
Because of his speech, Moses didn't want to, but he showed up.
I'm sure Noah was seen as all kinds of crazy, but he responded.
More often than not, it's vastly more simple than gathering two of each kind.
Breathe. Be still. Pray. Listen. Discern. Act.
Shore up fit-ness, preparedness, readiness, wherever He convicts. It's in the little things my friends... more often than not at any rate.
In so doing... by choosing to live in that manner, you choose to live empowered, you beautiful child of God.
Attended to with persistence, teeny tiny improvements as needed, will leave you prepared, lamps burning, ready to open the door when His knock sounds, in life as well as eternally speaking.
Father God,
Thank You for helping us to know You, to hear Your voice, and when we hear, to step up powerfully, even in the smallest things.
This we pray in the name of Your Son.
Amen.
"For this reason, you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect." ~ Matthew 24:44
"Walk in the manner of the ant, O slacker; observe its ways and become wise. Without a commander, without an overseer or ruler, it prepares its provisions in summer; it gathers its food at harvest." ~ Proverbs 6:7
"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take along any extra oil. But the wise ones took oil in flasks along with their lamps." ~ Matthew 25:1-4
May the Good Lord bless you and keep you, friends... always, in all ways. Amen.
Bonus song of praise... (It's good to be a little like a child from time to time, yes? Then, perhaps you'll play along with me, pull out that inner kiddo, and push play. Pretend you're about 5 years old and enjoy.) ♥
Sharables! ...and, hey, thanks for sharing. ♥
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