God's Preparations

Chuckle: "I am not satisfied with the evidence against you," said the magistrate to the prisoner on trial, "so I find you not guilty. You are free to go." "Good," said the prisoner. "Does that mean I can keep the money?"

Quote: "Praise is the first step on the stairway of prayer." --William Ward

GOD'S PREPARATIONS FOR YOU

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Corinthians 2:9 NLT).

The Bible is replete with God's promises about His preparations for us. When we try to wrap our minds around this subject, we find ourselves struggling to grasp the magnitude of God's love that is revealed in what He has done, is doing, and will do in the future for us.

Once we accept God's love as being real and without limits, even though we can't fully understand it, it becomes much easier to accept as truth the fact that God is preparing an eternal home for you and me that defies our imagination. Jesus said, "I am going there (my Father's house) to prepare a place for you. And I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am" (John 14:2-3 NIV). What a glorious promise! We will spend eternity with our Lord in a place the Bible calls heaven.

God prepared His own Son to be our atoning, once and for all, sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sins. Before the foundation of the world, God's preparations to redeem us had begun. "He (Jesus) was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake" (1 Peter 1:20 NIV). Jesus was chosen as a sacrificial lamb without blemish or defect to shed His precious blood for you and me.

God's has always been making preparations for our redemption. "Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be and without fault in his eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 1:4-5 NLT)

God's preparation also included plans to send His Holy Spirit to be with us. ". . . for he (Holy Spirit) lives with you and will be in you" (John 14:17 NIV. His Spirit comes to reside in us to comfort us, teach us, convict us, guide us, and empower us. God wants our lives here on earth to be happy, fulfilling, and rewarding, and has given us His Spirit to make these realities in your life and mine.

Finally, God's preparation for us includes the miraculous provision of prayer, making it possible for us to fellowship/communicate directly with Him in Jesus' name. From the beginning God has been preparing to give us the best possible life both here on earth and in the heavenly world to come.

 Love, Jerry & Dotse