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Sunday, December 1, 2019

ready

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me, during this season of Advent to be awake and alert, to be ready for your coming.  Come, Lord Jesus!  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 12:35-40

Journal: What is the difference between getting ready and being ready?  What does it look like to be ready for Christ’s return?  How is God inviting you to live in readiness during this season?  What does that look like?

Reflection: Ready [red-ee]: completely prepared or in fit condition for immediate action or use; in such a condition as to be imminent, likely at any moment.  
     In Luke 12:35-40, Jesus urges his followers to be ready for his coming, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet.  This readiness involves watching and waiting and keeping our lamps burning.  It involves staying dressed and ready for action.  The time for action has not yet arrived, but once it does we must be prepared for it.  
     And notice, he does say get ready, but be ready—there’s a big difference.  Getting ready involves a lot of activity, but being ready involves a state of mind and heart and soul that is always prepared for Jesus to come.  Being ready means we have already done the hard work of getting ready and now we must simply stay on our toes, awake and alert and attentive.  Being ready is a continual state of preparedness for immediate action. 
     When the children of Israel were being led by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, they had to live their lives in a certain way.  They had to always be awake and attentive and alert and prepare for the movement of God, lest they get left behind whenever he decided it was time to go.  They had to eat and sleep and watch and wait, all the while being dressed and ready.
     Thus, as we begin Advent, it is the same for each of us.  Advent is not the season for getting ready, it is a season for being ready.  All of the getting ready must be complete, because once our master returns there will be no time to grab extra oil for our lamps, or change our clothes, or make one last check of all of our supplies.  It is time for immediate action—opening the door and letting the master in.  Thus, Advent is a season of watching and waiting.  It is a season of being awake and alert.  It is a season of being dressed and ready and keeping our lamps burning.  For the master will return from the wedding banquet, and when he does, will he find us ready?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Show me, Lord Jesus, how to live at attention.  Help me, by your grace and your strength, to live in a continual state of preparedness.  Come, Lord Jesus!

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