“Noah and his family had a mission. “By faith, Noah when warned of things not yet seen in holy fear built an arc to save his family.” (Hebrew 11:7) Noah prepared for where he was going, even though it was not yet seen. He didn’t wait until the rain came to respond to what God said, because then it would have been too late. Noah and his family had never even seen rain, because remarkably it had never rained on the earth prior to the flood. We too have not seen where we have been called to walk in the days ahead, yet we must prepare.
Like Noah, the Lord told Abraham to leave his country and all he had known and head out into a land he didn’t know. God was preparing him to become a father of more descendants than the number of stars in the sky. This was when Abraham was old and had no children, yet he believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. He heard and obeyed in child like faith. He didn’t wait until he had proof. He prepared for what was to come.
Jesus also told a story about preparation in the Parable of the Ten Virgins, saying, “…the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to the ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.” (Mathew 25:1-4)
The virgins waited quite a while for the Bridegroom and because of the delay began to sleep. Then suddenly there was a shout announcing his arrival. As the virgins arose the foolish ones realized they were out of oil, and sought to get more from the wise virgins. However, they had only what would sustain themselves, so the foolish girls were out of luck and ran off to buy more. By the time they got back and tried to enter the wedding feast, the door was shut and the Bridegroom wouldn’t let them enter, because He didn't recognize them.
It is easy to look around at the way the world is progressing and think that our next big project is the most important thing going. It’s easy to lose sight of the day we will see the Lord face to face, but there is no better preparation than the investment of spending time in His presence, so that our lanterns will be full.
Waiting for things to grow darker and get more difficult is not a strategy for preparation. Did you notice that the word “pre” as before, is in preparation? It’s easy to call upon the Lord when we are up against the wall, but as we saw in the story of the virgins, if we do not invest the time to fill our internal lamps with oil now, we won’t have the presence and illumination of the Lord we need to get to where we are going. Nor will the Lord recognize those that never invest time now to truly know Him.
We must prepare like Noah and established an arc of safety to get us to where we are ultimately headed. We must establish within our families the presence of the Lord that will bring sustaining illumination. The greatest investment we can make now is not in our possessions, our business, or our status, but in what’s eternal and enduring.
