Be Prepared
If you have spent any time at all in prison, then you have definitely heard someone say, “ you don’t have to get ready, if you stay ready!”
They were Probably using this statement to impress upon those around them that they stay alert and therefore couldn’t be caught unprepared to meet violence with violence. Or maybe they meant that they were too crafty to get caught with contraband by the correctional officers. But that is our old nature- the nature and thinking that brought us to prison in the first place.
However, if applied correctly, this cliché still contains much truth. We could understand this saying in a deeper way when we see that being “ready” is the state of preparedness that we have accomplished in our lives. It is absolutely true that if we have taken the time to prepare then we will not have to rush around to get prepared for what we see coming at the last moment.
Some things you can’t prepare for in a hurried manner, they take time to prepare. For instance, if you were going to compete in a bodybuilding competition or a marathon you couldn’t begin the day or even the week of the event to condition your body. We also know that you can’t build a house without first digging and pouring a footing and then laying its foundation. Yet, often in our spiritual life we try to throw up the walls and roof of our house before we even lay our foundation. When the storms of life come, we find we didn’t adequately prepare our foundation. Jesus talks about this in Matthew 7; 24 – 27.
Jesus said, “anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on a solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rain and flood come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash”.
See the only difference in these two houses is how the builders prepared the foundation. If we are diligent to open God’s word daily and find out what Jesus taught, we can continually build our foundation in him and be ready for any storm so, if we stay ready, we won’t have to get ready!