Prepare… Preparing… Prepared…

Sure they hype the weather, but do we embrace weather READINESS? Blankets and boots, salt and shovels, warm gear? Can you get Subarus excited for snow? WELL, YES! But it’s not the inanimate object getting excited, it’s US excited or at least implored to get prepared… WE CAN GET READY. 

PREPARE – that’s for everything – plans and backup plans are good. Worrying about them is not. If we prepare anything, we should prepare our mindsets, how about we plan to follow what God plans. (Including His Plan for our future and even the second coming of the Lord). You know, too much hype is not good for anything or anyone. Weather anticipation or anything that brings us to a fevered level of anxiety. Instead, let’s PREPARE – prepare our snow shovels, prepare our cupboards, prepare our game plan, prepared our hearts.

Game plan? We hype sports, sure, but the teams actually prepare for the games. I’m happy my childhood favorite team inched one game closer to superbowl contention… There are hopeful fans painting their bellies and faces right now preparing for the Sunday games. There is real hope there for the die-hard fans, not just hype. And there are fair-weather fans jumping on the bandwagon, preparing watch parties to have fun… It is good to prepare – my friend prepared her house for a party and everyone appreciated it. 

And one mention recently of preparing, this warmed my heart!!! I was SO EXCITED when my shorts-wearing kid took out sweatpants at the last moment in the car just before entering the ice hockey arena! Proud mom moment!!! Pants!! Pre-prepared pants!

So, our Bible lesson from Haggai is a life lesson too – have we prepared for the Lord? In any and all circumstances, are we ready to praise and listen? Haggai sent a message from God to rebuild, work, listen: “… now be strong… Be strong and work. For I am with you… And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.”

The Lord told them to restore their faith and restore His Temple (destroyed in Jerusalem, rebuilding in a few hundred years before Jesus) – prepare for the Lord to be present in the temple and we could also see and read between the lines for the coming of Jesus. . . GOD’S GLORY IS OF JESUS COMING (AND RE-COMING) to the temple directly and to EACH of our temples. We must make room for Jesus inside our temples, clean it up and prepare our hearts.

So, we do thank the Lord for the opportunity to prepare. No hype needed, however the chaos in the world and the loosening of the control of evil is ever around us, and we need to strengthen our contenance and hearts. And the Lord Himself will shake the heavens and the earth, “once again”, therefore we must prepare for His Almighty Power…

Prepare to watch the Lord (and the weather)…

Prepare.

Amen 

—

Haggai 2:1-9

And on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, ‘Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”