We need to be ready for the times that are coming. What times are coming? End times? I don’t know, but I do feel that something is about to happen.
Hosea 10:12, Sow for yourselves righteousness;
Reap in mercy;
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the Lord,
Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
Colossians 4:2, Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving
1 Thessalonians 5:6-10, Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
These verses are warning us and instructing us to be vigilant and to be prepared. But these verses were written 2000 years ago. Are they still relevant for the times we are living in? I believe they more relevant than ever. We are living in perilous times.
The weather is out of sorts and unpredictable. The economy is unstable. Politics is generally a mess. People mostly can’t be taken at their word and churches are emptying at an alarming rate. We have been conditioned be society and by educational institutions to act like the world. Christians are being made fun and ridiculed at universities for their views. In countries where freedom of speech is propagated Christians are being persecuted for daring to propagate and stand up for their beliefs. The bible and prayer have been taken out of many schools and children are being taught unbiblical values.
What are Christians supposed to do? How are we supposed to act?
Let us look at Hosea 10:12. Sow for yourself righteousness. In other words, do the biblical thing. What would Jesus do? Break up fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord. We have to turn and face God. We have to earnestly seek His face and His will. There’s no time to waste or procrastinate. Now is the time to take action and firstly get right with God. Getting right with God shouldn’t take you longer than about 5 minutes. Repent, ask forgiveness and make a commitment to spend more time with Him daily. Then you can start your new journey of getting intimate with God and going to the secret place. There’s no point in doing ministry if you don’t spend one-on-one time with your Father. He is the only one who can give you what you need so that you can break the fallow ground. So that you can go out into the world (your world) and be a fisher of men.
Colossians 4:2 says we have to persevere in prayer and be thankful. Being thankful is such a great game changer. It is the way we change our mindset and overcome all kinds of hardship. Being thankful for what we have allows us to forgive. It allows us to show mercy. And of course as long as we are praying we are communicating with the Lord. Something to remember about prayer is that we don’t just put our side of the story before God and then switch off. We have to take time to listen to what He is telling us too. People often say that they don’t hear God, but the answer is being silent and taking time to listen. His there and He wants to communicate with us.
1 Thessalonians 5:6-10. This passage says that we are in the day. We must not get entangled in things that are done in the dark and that are of the dark. If we have the Holy Spirit living in us it is not hard to discern which things are light and which are dark. We have a warning system that comes with being a believer. We need to pay attention to the times we don’t feel at peace with things. That means that something isn’t right and we can’t be part of it.
No matter what is on the horizon, we need to be ready for it. We have to be clothed in the armour of God at all times and our lamps need to be full of oil. If Jesus comes tomorrow we need to be ready, but if our lives on earth are cut short we also need to be ready. Jesus is the flame and we need to be like moths that are trying to get closer and closer to Him all the time.
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