intentional, holy preparation

Prepare your work outside;

get everything ready for yourself in the field,

and after that build your house.

Proverbs 24:27

Preparation is as an important a life skill as any. Haphazard living is a dangerous approach to life. Only a fool would want to live an unintentional life. Having intention, plans, purposes, and preparations are wise... not out of self-effort alone, but out of a wisdom borne by faith that God is with us, supplying our needs, equipping us to work hard for His glory, and lovingly informing our plans as a caring Father.

Careful preparation takes time and effort. You don’t build a house by dumping random materials on a lot. First there is a blueprint. There is cost estimation. Then there is the site work to prepare for the foundation. Without all that outside work, the house cannot even begin to be built. Preparation is the foundation to the foundation.

When we trust Jesus for eternal salvation, we put our faith in a work that God prepared for us before the foundation of the world. That’s right... God prepared our salvation before He created the universe (Ephesians 1:4; Revelation 13:8). God prepared for the people who would be at home with Him for eternity before even the first molecule was spoken into existence.

Jesus called His disciples to count the cost of committing to being in His kingdom (Luke 14:26-28). I personally find this to be an ongoing task as life changes and new opportunities lend themselves to calling me to follow Jesus in a new and deeper way. I must be prepared. And the first way to “work outside” and get “everything ready” is to regularly intake scripture so that I hear from God clearly, spending time in real personal prayer to commune with the Lord properly, and then trust as His Spirit leads me to prepare steps to follow unique to me. I should seek counsel from other mature friends and followers of Jesus that help confirm what God is showing me. These steps are humbly submitted to His sovereign control, ready to flex as God may direct me. God’s blessing comes both in the preparing AND in the obeying!