1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. 3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Matthew 25:1-4 (NASB)
Jesus is coming back soon. If that statement brought a surge of joy into your heart then more than likely, you are actively preparing for His return and are looking forward to it with eagerness….
However, there may be some of you who reacted with a sense of dread or foreboding. If that is the case, then I pray that you will pay special attention to the truths from God’s Word we will look at in this post. There may be some of you who reacted to that statement with skepticism or doubt. For you, I pray that God will open your heart to the truth as we study His Word.
35 “ Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. 36 Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. 38 Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves. 39 “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have allowed his house to be broken into. 40 You too, be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.” Luke 12:35-40 (NASB)
Of course our Lord did not mean that we must deprive ourselves of rest and sleep or that we must keep our eyes peeled on the sky looking for Him to appear in the clouds 24/7. What this means is that we must be actively pursuing holiness in our lives as we obey Him in all things. We seek God’s glory through us. We pray for our Lord’s Kingdom to come in fulfillment. At the same time, we actively pursue God’s will and pray that it be done here in our lives as if we were in Heaven with Him now. We understand that all we have comes from God. Since we are pursuing holiness we are actively putting sin to death within us. We seek forgiveness from God and those we have offended. We also forgive those who have trespassed against us. In fact we ask God if He would only forgive us as we forgive others. We ask God to lead us not into temptation as He delivers us from evil.