Daily devotion – required preparation!
Matthew 7: 24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”
2 Tim 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
I have had the misfortune to listen to sermons where the preacher has not prepared his message and just ‘wings it’! Words without meaning and a complete waste of the hearer’s time.
I have watched Sunday school teachers teach without preparing and touch not one child with the power of God’s Word – sacrilege!
I have listened to ill prepared youth preachers speaking to young men and women, and with that one wasteful moment drive each of those kids further from the Gospel than when they arrived.
If we don’t treat the teaching of God’s Word with the due attention, time and diligence it deserves, we will answer to Jesus Christ Himself on judgment day.
Jas 3:1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.
Whether it be our own time of devotional study, our children’s, or any such teaching ministry in Christ’s Church, preparation, prayer and study are required for any work of such ministries to have the blessing and power of God work through them.
‘Winging it’ is a far greater sin than we could imagine! Especially when we treat children’s studies with such little respect – Mar 9:42 “But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.”
I cannot imagine anyone putting up with any preacher ‘winging it’ in the pulpit. Let us remember time is precious, God’s Word is precious, and so too are lost souls and little saints.
Earnest prayer and study are the foundation of any worthwhile study or teaching.
Any good tradesman, craftsman, artist, you name it, are those who doing all the required preparation before they commence the task they are to complete.
Let us be reminded in closing, Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; – Psalm 127:1. This can only happen if we have put in the time to prepare before the Lord beforehand.
Let us this week, put in the time, the study, the preparation, and honour God’s Word, seek His Holy Spirit’s guidance and give our all to the ministry Christ has called us to!
Let us never be unprepared!