Today’s word is PREPARE. In the OT, most uses of this word are about human preparations, particularly making arrangements for meals, sacrifices and war, but the psalms acknowledge how God also makes preparations. The most familiar is Psalm 23:5. “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” This is a poetic way of saying that God plans ahead to supply the needs of His people.
He also takes care of the earth and all that is in it: Psalm 65:9. “You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it” and Psalm 147:8. “He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills.”
God takes care of those He anoints for special assignments, such as David, His king. Psalm 132:17. “There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.”
The Lord also prepares ways to defeat those who go against His people. He says of Babylon: Jeremiah 51:38–40. “They shall roar together like lions; they shall growl like lions’ cubs. While they are inflamed I will prepare them a feast and make them drunk, that they may become merry, then sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake, declares the Lord. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and male goats.”
Toward the end of the OT, God tells how He will send a messenger to “prepare the way before” Him and that promise is fulfilled when John the Baptist begins announcing that the Messiah is coming.
The NT speaks of God preparing His people to turn to Him, preparing those who will sit at His right hand, preparing praise from the mouth of infants, and preparing eternal fire “for the devil and his angels.” Jesus also made this promise to His confused disciples:
John 14:1–3. “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
While He makes preparations for those who reject Him and for those on whom He shows mercy, we also prepared for what lies ahead. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 says,
“As it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”
And He who has prepared us for this very thing also “gives us the Spirit as a guarantee” and prepares us for the good that He wants us to do while we are here . . .
Ephesians 2:10. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
The culmination of His story is another amazing preparation . . .
Hebrews 11:16. “But as it is, they (all who have served God in faith) desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” . . . Revelation 21:2. “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. While I can do it, I’m trying to prepare my ‘stuff’ for the day that I leave this world to go to that place God has prepared for me. This is mainly so my children have less to deal with. I’m tossing the useless and unwanted and deciding what to do with all the good things no longer needed. This preparation is often difficult but today’s Scripture helps. The idea of God preparing His plans all through history makes my challenges smaller, less daunting and more manageable. And since He is preparing my eternal future, I’m encouraged to do the same. Because of His loving care, I won’t need any of this ‘stuff’ when I get to that place He has prepared!
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