By Jessica Brodie
As I write this, I’ve just finished a full week of getting back into my fitness routine. With my job and other responsibilities, the best choice is for me to wake up early and work out, and that can be really hard. I’m tired, and I don’t always feel like I have the energy or willpower to get up and get going.
The night before I started, I prayed that Jesus would help me do it, that even though it was hard, I knew I could do hard things through his strength. Through him, I could accomplish the task before me. Again, that first morning, I prayed for him to help me drag my weary body out of bed and make it happen.
It’s hard to commit to a new routine and then stick to it. To do it for one day is easy, but I knew I’d need to have some deeper purpose and motivation for sticking to my new regimen. I thought about that as I laced up my sneakers and climbed the stairs to my workout room. And as I took my first steps on the treadmill, I felt God speak into my heart: “You need to be ready for 2027.”
I smiled at that . . . because instantly I knew I now had all the motivation I needed.
Be ready.
It’s time to prepare.
Sticking to my new routine will make my body stronger for whatever is coming. So that is exactly what I’ll do. And by the time December rolls around, I’ll be ready.
Now, exactly what God actually meant—be ready—is a mystery. I have no idea what 2027 will bring. Are we talking the end times? Civil war? A personal health crisis or another pandemic? Some other calamity?
But it doesn’t really matter. Because God said to be ready, I really have two choices—I can do what he said and be obedient, or I can turn my back and walk in another direction. I choose, in my own free will, to be obedient. I choose to trust that God knows what I do not, and to be ready.
Sometimes we sense the Lord nudging us in a new direction. But we want answers, don’t we? We want to know specifically how to do a thing, or exactly what will happen. And sometimes those things are not meant for us to know. Sometimes the only option we have is to step forward in obedience and trust the Lord of the Universe will provide. We have to do our part, and we can trust that he will do the rest.
Consider Scripture. Think about the Israelites in the wilderness after they left Egypt and struck out for the Promised Land. They had no idea what God had in store. For 40 years, Moses obeyed God. In the end, though he himself did not see the Promised Land, a remnant of his people did. Or think about what Jesus said: “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19, Matthew 9:9, John 1:43). His apostles had no real idea what that looked like, or where there were going. But they chose to listen to the son of God and do as he commanded.
I choose the same.
If you hear the Lord speaking into your heart and telling you to do something—whether that is to prepare or to heed some other word or insight God is giving you—I offer three things we can do to be ready for what God has planned.
One, we can trust. We don’t have to know what’s ahead of us. We can trust and believe, and have faith that God does know. We can trust and believe, and have faith that he will equip us with the energy, the skills, the knowledge, the endurance, or the strength needed to accomplish whatever it is he wants us to do.
Two, we can pray. We can pray when our motivation and willpower falter. We can ask God to help us. We can ask him to speak into our hearts, give us answers, and aid or equip us beyond our human capability.
Three, we can repent. Repentance means, in the most basic terms, to turn around and go in the opposite direction. It’s leaving behind the old way to start afresh, walking the new path God has laid for us. Heeding God’s call is as much about repentance and perspective as anything else. We turn aside from the old things to embrace the new, the good, the righteous, the holy.
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”— Matthew 24:42 (NIV)
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