ready

Over and over in scripture we read the Lord will come back like a thief in the night. The gospels show Jesus telling his disciples and all of us to be on our guard and be ready.

Are you ready? If the Lord were to show up on your doorstep this minute would you be ready or would you be thinking, "Wait, I was going to work on this problem and I was going to forgive that person before you came." My answer to the question is, "It depends on the day." Sometimes it depends on the hour. I may be ready one minute and not ready the next. But Jesus tells us we should always be ready.

In Luke, Jesus uses a parable about a servant overseeing his master's property. When the master is long in coming back, the servant becomes complacent and begins to slack off on his duties. I can so relate to that story. Sometimes, I honestly forget the Lord is coming back and I get consumed with the things of this world and neglect the things I should really be working on. But I don't want this attitude. I want to be ready.

As I thought about this, I thought of a person who always has a clean house. Surely you know someone like this. You can show up at her house with no notice and everything is spotless as if you called weeks ago to announce your visit. These are the same people who take your glass and put it in the dishwasher before you've even set it down after your last sip. You know what these people have going for them? They're always ready. It may be alot of work to keep their house clean but they are willing to do the work because the payoff is huge. They can entertain on a moment's notice. They can relax on the weekend because there isn't an entire house to clean.

I want to be like that with my spiritual life. A couple of years ago, I studied the book of Acts. Before studying this book, I was a bit put off by Paul's attitude. I thought he was arrogant and proud, always telling us we should act like him. But after studying Acts I realized the reason for this. Paul was always ready. That doesn't mean he was perfect, but he was always examining himself and asking God where he could improve. He kept short accounts with God.

Keeping short accounts with God is like the woman with the eternally clean house. Why is her house always clean? She is constantly cleaning up small messes. Something spills, she cleans it up. The mail comes, she sorts it and throws out the junk. We can answer Jesus' call to always be ready if we will apply the same concepts to our spiritual lives. When we tell a lie, we immediately ask for forgiveness. When we disobey God, we go to Him right away. We are going to screw up from time to time, not one of us is perfect but if we will remember to spend time each day, confessing our sins to God and asking Him to show us where we can do better, we will keep those short accounts with God and we will be ready.