Will We Be Ready? / Greg Laurie

 Will We Be Ready?

For you are all children of the light and of the day; we don’t belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded. (1 Thessalonians 5:5-6 NLT)

God can see the future with complete certainty. He knows it as well as we might know our past. God looks at the future, the past, and the present as one. He can see them all.

Therefore, it is no reach for God to say that something will happen exactly as He predicted it would, because He lives in the supernatural realm.

In my understanding of Bible prophecy, Jesus could come back at any time. I do not see any piece in the prophetic puzzle that needs to be put in place before He could come for His church.

This means that Christ could come for us today. Hebrews 9:28 tells us, “He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly waiting for him” (nlt). The question is, will we be ready?

The Rapture will be an instantaneous event. That is why, in speaking of Christ’s return, the Bible tells us to be ready. It tells us to be alert. Be watching. Pay attention. We must be ready now.

Writing about the return of Christ, Paul warned, “So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded. Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk. But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:6-8 NLT).

The Bible tells Christians to wake up. Don’t be asleep in the light. That’s because a lot of us can simply lie around enjoying a prolonged nap while the rest of the world faces an imminent judgment. Yet God is saying, “You need to wake up. Be alert and live in the light. Put on the armor of faith and love.”

We are living in the last days, and it will get tough at times. We had better have our spiritual weapons ready and close by. We had better realize the devil will try to trip us up and bring us down.

Tragically, one of the signs of the last days is that some will fall away from the faith (see 1 Timothy 4:1). Don’t let that cause you to worry, because God will keep you if you want to be kept. He will protect you. But you have to take practical steps to be protected.

So, stay close to Him. Avoid the pitfalls and the things that can drag you down, and be alert. Be awake. Be on guard. And be available to serve the Lord and share the life-changing message of the gospel with others.

Jesus said, “We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:4-5 NLT).

Wake up from spiritual lethargy, laziness, and apathy. Wake up to the urgency of the hour. We must seize the opportunities God gives us, because they won’t be around forever.