Back when I was a Cub Scout Webelo, and then became a Boy Scout, we had a call & response that we would do every week as a part of our meeting. The Den Leader or Scout Master would say “Be Prepared!!!” and we’d answer back, “We are prepared!!!” and that would go back and forth a few times just to drive home that point of preparedness for any situation, the need to be safe, to be helpful, and to do our best and honorably do our “duty to serve God and our country.”
Preparedness & readiness require being faithful every day.
Pretty frequently people will want to sound like they have a new idea or a fresh insight into something and try to overly nuance something in an attempt to be profound or to attempt to sound novel.
But if you’re wanting to be faithful, to be ready to serve God? That doesn’t require us coming up with new phraseology, or some clever tweak. Nothing novel is needed.
If we want to be prepared as people, or be ready as the church, then daily faithfulness is exactly what’s needed. Spiritual disciplines are a guiding factor. As God develops our heart to be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit for warnings, for instruction and for wisdom from the Father, and to see the work of Christ through sanctification as we meet with Him in His Word.
Preparedness and readiness are built by faithfulness. And it is God who strengthens us to be faithful so we can be ready to do whatever He calls us to do every day.
In Luke 17, Jesus instructs us in this way:
[10] “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”
And what do servants do?
They listen for their Master’s voice & command. They act in obedience and from their readiness to serve. And why? Because it is their role & joy to honor their lord & master.
Our Master provides for our needs. He protects, shelters and guides us.
His household is His household. It is not ours to command. Being faithful and being ready doesn’t mean we have lordship, but it does mean that we have stewardship of what He has entrusted to us.
We cannot be ready, we will not be prepared if we have not been faithful. And the person who is faithful will have a mind and heart that proves itself ready when the Master calls.
Faithfulness is how we physically, emotionally and spiritually order our life around the things of Christ and according to His Word & work for us. It is a living out of the pattern ordained for us by the One who purchased us through the blood of His Son.
Preparedness and readiness are the resulting response faithfulness produces in us. It means that the day-to-day obedience walked out produces a new mind and a new heart that is ready respond at a moments notice. It is a sanctified humility that drops what it’s doing in order to answer the Master’s call.
And answering the call strengthens the faithfulness as we are encouraged to see and experience the Master’s guiding hand in us and impact through us.
We say, “Wow, I never thought God would use _me_ to accomplish _that_.” and He gains all glory for that work and blessing.
We should also keep in mind that there are things that neither our faithfulness nor our readiness can produce.
I can be faithful before God in knowing the Gospel as He guides me to do so.
I can be ready in obedience to share the Gospel as He calls me to do so.
But I cannot change the heart of the person God prepared me to be ready to share that Good News with, no matter what -I- do.
That work belongs to the Holy Spirit & the Word. We cannot carry that responsibility, but we can be faithful and be prepared to do our part as God uses one rescued sinner to share the glorious news of salvation with one who still wanders in sin & death.
Again, faithfulness produces readiness, and faithfulness will strengthen us in obedience. But it is to YHWH Himself to redeem, renew & restore. The glory, honor & praise goes to Him alone.
For the individual: How do you see God teaching you faithfulness in this season?
For church leaders: How is God calling you, through your own faithfulness that He is fostering, to strengthen those you serve in His Name to also be faithful & ready to listen to their Master’s call?
