Are you prepared for anything that might happen in your life? I believe that I am. How do you prepare yourself for what is to come? Are you ready for a tragedy to strike in your life? I was somewhat prepared but could have been more prepared. What must we do to be prepared for the future? Let us find out together.
I have two dear friends that have experience multiple tragedies in their lives. They have experienced 7 miscarriages, one child born alive but died withing a day, and one child born premature and they were not sure if he would survive but He survives today some 20 plus years later and is a true blessing. I ask her last week what was it that continue to hope that the next child would live to term and be able to live a normal life. After thinking about it she responded “I was prepared for anything. I had built up a relationship with Jesus and trusted Him to make things right.” The response that she gave me was not a surprise because I expected from knowing her as a friend for almost 40 years that she had a strong relationship with Jesus and depended upon Him for everything.
As I look back on my tragedy, the loss of my wife Laura mental illness which resulted in suicide. It was that I too had prepared to face anything because of my relationship with Jesus. Having a relationship with Jesus starts with the first step believing in Him. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (ESV) The next steps involve asking, seeking, and knocking. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:7-12 (ESV) The next steps are found in Deuteronomy 6:4-8, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (ESV) These steps are to love God above anyone or anything else with absolutely everything I have. That God’s commands be on my heart. That I should teach them to others starting with my own family. I should take as many opportunities available to me to talk about God. I should have my life filled with God’s word.
Being prepared for anything is not an easy task but it is a task that is simple. I have found though that is a task that can be done. As I wrote before it is doable. I have found that because I was prepared that I could endure my tragedy with hope for tomorrow.
So, join me in preparing for whatever is to come whether it be good or bad in our own minds. Understand that when we have a relationship with Jesus Christ we are prepared for anything. He promises us, “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”Deuteronomy 31:8 (ESV) Then you will be prepared for anything which gives hope. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross satisfied the penalty for my sins and yours as well. It satisfied all my sins from the past, in the present and in the future. My penalty and yours was satisfied on the cross by the death of Jesus, God’s greatest act of love and wrath, who became sin for me and you. It was also God’s greatest act of faithfulness because “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 (ESV) Because wisdom shows us, we need to believe in Jesus. I hope that you join me in choosing Jesus.
If you have not read my previous blogs, you can find them here.
You can find my book, Hope Amid Hopelessness: Our Abba Father Provides a Way Through Mental Illness here.
eBook or Audiobook versions can be found at Westbow Press or Christianbook.com at Amazon or Google.
