Promise for Today - We MUST Prepare

And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD.
2 Chronicles 12:14

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase, 'Be prepared'? Most of us recognize it as the motto for the Boy and the Girl Scouts of America. No matter what it brings to mind, it's all about the same thing: doing what you know to do to be ready for what is coming.

Our text for today refers to Israel's King Rehoboam. He had really made God angry because he and the people had abandoned God and had turned to idol worship. God was ready to kill them all, but then Rehoboam humbled himself before God and it turned away God’s wrath (vs.12).

Preparing one’s heart is more than just saying, “Okay, God, I have time for You now.” It’s not about fitting God into our schedule. It’s about breaking up the hard ground. Crushing the clods of bitterness, selfishness. It’s about working it loose – and then holding it together by soaking it with the water of the Word. Making PREPARATION for the seeds of God’s planting. Just like preparing the soil is hard work, so is preparing one’s heart. But it’s worth it – it releases God’s grace in our lives.

Even before the dispensation of Grace in the New Testament, we find people in 2 Chronicles 30, who had not gone through the purification process required in God's law before participating in the Feast of Unleavened Bread. However, vvs.19-20 NKJV reads, '...Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good LORD provide atonement for everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.” And the LORD listened to Hezekiah and healed the people.'

We MUST prepare our hearts to have a relationship with Christ! Jesus said in Matthew 13:15, 'For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes— so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.' That is not what we want Jesus to say about us.

We MUST prepare our hearts to be used by God to fulfill His purpose in our lives. 2 Timothy 2:20-21 reads, 'In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter [for common use] will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.' God changes our hearts, but only if we have prepared our hearts to receive His changes.

Are we prepared?

Prayer:

Father,
            According to Your Word - Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen