Are You Ready?

Are you ready to take a stand for your faith in God? Are you prepared to be ridiculed for your beliefs? Are you ready to go public for Him? These questions are important because the Bible tells us repeatedly to “Be Ready!”

“So always be ready, alert and prepared, because at an hour you’re not expecting Him, the Son of Man will come” (Matthew 24:44).

He goes further in His warnings… “If you deny Me before others, I will deny you before My Father” (Matthew 10:33). But, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and mock you and say all sorts of evil against you because you believe in Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in Heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:11,12).

If we say we like to be “private about our faith,” we are denying Jesus who was public for us in every way; healing and saving people publicly, sharing saving words of life publicly, whipped and beaten publicly, dying for us publicly and rising again publicly. There is nothing about our Christian life that is to be hidden or private, casual or comfortable. We are His followers, and we need to make that known in grace and truth.

Isaiah said it well when God asked, “Who should I send with the Message of Life?” - Isaiah responded, “Here I am, Lord, send me!”  Esther, when asked to save a whole nation, responded that she would, and stated, “If I die, I die!” But she didn’t die, and she saved the entire Jewish nation. We, too, must be ready and willing to serve.

This is a time for bold, unapologetic faith. It’s time to be ready. Take a stand. Be bold. Jesus is coming.

(Devotional by Cheryl Hall-Laos)