“YOU ALSO MUST BE READY!”

 Matthew 24:42-44                             (ESV)

“42 Therefore, STAY AWAKE, for you do not know on what day your LORD is coming.

43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

44 Therefore “YOU ALSO MUST BE READY”, for the SON of MAN is coming at an hour you do not expect.”  

It can be so easy to allow the troubles and ills of “this world” to keep us in the grips of despair.  It seems that “the news” and “social media” are consumed by spreading negativity in abundance.  JESUS says in John 10:10-11 “THE THIEF COMES ONLY comes ONLY to STEAL and KILL and DESTROY. I came that they may have LIFE and have it ABUNDANTLY.

I AM the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”  In CHRIST, we are PROMISED to have LIFE ABUNDANTLY!

But ABUNDANTLY doesn’t mean that we are free from problems.  John 16:33 says “I have said these things to you, that in ME YOU MAY HAVE PEACE. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."  We are NOT PROMISED to be free of problems, but IN CHRIST WE MAY HAVE PEACE!  

Sure, easy-believism tells us that we should live our best life now, but JESUS PROMISES in Matthew 5:12 “Rejoice and be glad, FOR YOUR REWARD IS GREAT IN HEAVEN, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”  Our warning while here on earth is “YOU ALSO MUST BE READY”, because “the SON of MAN is coming at an hour you do not expect.”   Don’t allow the gloom and doom of “this world” instill fear and doubt in your life, for JESUS offers LIFE without the tools of the devil!  Steal and kill and destroy may play well here on earth, but we are NOT of “this world” (John 15:19) IN CHRIST!

The great deceiver will attempt to color his schemes as catastrophic and with finality!  But his end has already been determined.  Colossians 2:15 states “HE disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them IN HIM.”  The reason that we IN CHRIST can CELEBRATE is because of what HE has done for us, not because how worthy we are!  We need to remember that HE has already completed HIS WORK against 

“the enemy”, but “YOU ALSO MUST BE READY” for the lies of “the enemy”!!!