The Essential Role of Preparation in Spiritual Achievement
2 Chronicles 8:16
Now all the work of Solomon was prepared unto the day of the foundation of the house of the LORD, and until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was perfected.
I once heard it said that preparation is half the work. However, if nothing gets done without it, doesn’t it deserve a little more than half the credit? It is often that we desire to see the end results without having to look upon the stages of development, growth, struggle, and maturity one must go through beforehand.
Notice in our text that perfection only comes after preparation has its proper place! In order for one to make preparations, there must first be a sense of direction defining what it is we’re preparing for! In other words, wherever you find preparation, you first find vision. Since it is without vision that we perish, we must ensure that our vision remains clear and concise at all time.
This enables us to adjust to the constantly ever-changing terrain through which we must travel in order to get to our destination. Much of what we must face is unpredictable, hence the need for faith; we trust God to get us through whatever stands between our today and our tomorrow! However, this does not negate our responsibility to plan and prepare for the predictable, all-the-while trusting Him with the unpredictable.
I think here of the five foolish virgins. I can just hear them spiritualizing their situation now; “Well, let’s just trust God that when we need oil on our journey, He’ll put it in our lamps for us, or lay it upon someone else’s heart to give us some!” Yet, they knew the entire time that they would eventually need oil! Why is it that we expect God to bail us out of self-inflicted, completely avoidable dilemmas we so often place ourselves in due to lack of preparation?
At some point, we must learn that God has given us brains to think with, hands to work with, and a heart to stay in tune to Him with for a reason! It is not that we become independent, as in not influenced or controlled by Him, but rather that we become inter-dependent, which means that we rely upon one another! You may find this hard to believe, but God is counting on you as a free moral agent to willfully prepare for His will and His plan for your life! That is His sovereign will for you! We must therefore continually prepare ourselves with His wisdom and direction for the steps that are yet to be taken!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill
Now all the work of Solomon was prepared unto the day of the foundation of the house of the LORD, and until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was perfected.
I once heard it said that preparation is half the work. However, if nothing gets done without it, doesn’t it deserve a little more than half the credit? It is often that we desire to see the end results without having to look upon the stages of development, growth, struggle, and maturity one must go through beforehand.
Notice in our text that perfection only comes after preparation has its proper place! In order for one to make preparations, there must first be a sense of direction defining what it is we’re preparing for! In other words, wherever you find preparation, you first find vision. Since it is without vision that we perish, we must ensure that our vision remains clear and concise at all time.
This enables us to adjust to the constantly ever-changing terrain through which we must travel in order to get to our destination. Much of what we must face is unpredictable, hence the need for faith; we trust God to get us through whatever stands between our today and our tomorrow! However, this does not negate our responsibility to plan and prepare for the predictable, all-the-while trusting Him with the unpredictable.
I think here of the five foolish virgins. I can just hear them spiritualizing their situation now; “Well, let’s just trust God that when we need oil on our journey, He’ll put it in our lamps for us, or lay it upon someone else’s heart to give us some!” Yet, they knew the entire time that they would eventually need oil! Why is it that we expect God to bail us out of self-inflicted, completely avoidable dilemmas we so often place ourselves in due to lack of preparation?
At some point, we must learn that God has given us brains to think with, hands to work with, and a heart to stay in tune to Him with for a reason! It is not that we become independent, as in not influenced or controlled by Him, but rather that we become inter-dependent, which means that we rely upon one another! You may find this hard to believe, but God is counting on you as a free moral agent to willfully prepare for His will and His plan for your life! That is His sovereign will for you! We must therefore continually prepare ourselves with His wisdom and direction for the steps that are yet to be taken!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill