PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• It’s the home stretch…
One more week to get ready for Christmas.
Are you ready?
Hopefully, you’re better prepared than I am.
As much as I wanted to shop local this year, a lack of time coupled with a foot of snow sent me to Amazon for my Christmas shopping.
And for the first time, Amazon has me worried.
Normally, I order, I blink, and whatever I’ve ordered is here.
However, I ordered a few gifts a week ago, and only two things have arrived.
I’m obsessively checking for shipping updates, and most of my order still hasn’t shipped.
I didn’t pay for expedited shipping because I assumed I’d ordered in enough time.
It’s our assumptions that usually get us in trouble, am I right?
As we prepare for the Christmas countdown, I thought I had enough time.
The one very special gift I wanted to get my son hasn’t been ordered yet and now I know it won’t arrive on time so I’m holding that idea for a birthday gift.
The annual Christmas baking I wanted to do has been cancelled for the 10th year in a row…
The Christmas Tea Party I wanted to have never made it on the calendar…
Christmas cards?
Well that’s just laughable.
I’ll post my Christmas greetings on Facebook sometime this week…
We always assume we have more time, don’t we?
We always have good intentions.
And despite the fact that Christmas shows up at the same time every year, I am never ready for it.
How true that is in our spiritual life too.
We always assume we’ll have time to pray.
We have good intentions that we’ll read the Bible.
We’ll go to church next week.
We’ll sign up for the next Bible study.
Friends, there’s no time plan the present to prepare.
Romans 13:11 says, “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.”
And Jesus Himself said, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.” (Matthew 25:13).
We know Christmas is coming.
And we know Jesus is coming again.
One is one the calendar and one we don’t know.
But I know this — if Jesus comes back to rapture the church in my lifetime, I hope He finds me either in prayer or reading my Bible.
Let’s not assume we have time to get ready.
Today, as you pray, thank Jesus for the upcoming Christmas season and what it represents.
Thank Him for coming into the world and thank Him that He will come back again.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you be diligent in being ready.
Ask Him to help you make your spiritual life in Christ a priority and an ongoing act of preparedness.
