Are You Ready?
by Malcolm Wood
During one of our church’s online prayer and Bible studies, Psalm 130:6 was brought to our attention. While we reflected on it, we were challenged by the thought of the sentry, anxiously anticipating the dawn and looking forward to the first appearance of day light, the start of a new day and the end of his shift. The challenge to us was, “Are we as anxiously anticipating and eagerly awaiting the return of Jesus, our Lord and Saviour?”
We read much in Scripture about the Lord’s return and how we, His Church, His bride, should be prepared, ready, and waiting for His appearance with excitement. A bride may spend a lot of time, months, or even years, planning and preparing for her great day, the day when she will be united with her future husband. She will go to a great amount of effort, and expense, to look her best, and be the beautiful bride he is expecting.
In Ephesians 5, the apostle Paul tells us that we, the Church, His bride, will be presented to Christ as a ‘glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault’ (verse 27). As individuals, and as His bride, we need to take to heart the words of Peter, talking about the return of the Lord, ‘So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him’ (2 Peter 3:14).
I believe, as many others do at this time, that God is using the present crisis and other significant events around the world to get our attention and to warn us that we haven’t long before Jesus returns. As that day approaches, we need to be like the five wise bridesmaids Jesus speaks of in Matthew 25, really prepared, ready and waiting for the return of the bridegroom.
May the Lord preserve us from complacency. May we remain awake and alert, and draw on the help of His Spirit to become the sort of people He intends us to be. May we draw on His help to encourage others to also be ready. Paul tells us that ‘Now you have every spiritual gift you need as you eagerly wait for the return of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you strong to the end so that you will be free from all blame on the day when our Lord Jesus Christ returns,’ (1 Corinthians 1:7-8).
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank You that You are coming back for us Your people, Your bride. Please help us to be ready, watching, waiting and eagerly anticipating that day. Amen.
Malcolm Wood and his wife Anna became part of the Ellel family as House Managers at Ellel Grange in 1990. Since then they have been involved with many aspects of the developing Ministry. From 2001 until 2015 they were Directors of Ellel Scotland where they hosted several International Schools and Operation Blairmore and helped pioneer the exciting Creative Inspiration Weeks. They have three sons.
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