IMG_4457Did you lock the door to your home?
Did you close your garage door?
If you are out and about, did you lock your car door?
Did you secure your bicycle with a combination code chain?
Is your cell phone passcode protected?

Basically, what I am asking is, have you prepared for a thief today?

I have. In fact, I think that you and I have prepared ourselves for a thief in more than one way today. Think about how many things you have done just in the past day to guard your possessions against a thief.

Perhaps, even, a thief that might never come.

How about our hearts?
How about those people around us that we encounter, or those whom we know and love, that do not know Jesus?
Have we prepared our hearts, have we prepared those around us for the return of Jesus?

For, unlike a POTENTIAL thief, we KNOW that Jesus WILL return someday.

“For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night….But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day…For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.”
1 Thessalonians 5: 2, 4-5, 9-10

You see, the return of the Lord Jesus will be a SURPRISE for EVERYBODY, just as that first boom of thunder when a weather front comes through.

The difference is, for those who are disciples of Jesus, it will not be a COMPLETE surprise, for we know that Jesus is to return again. For this reason, the day should not OVERTAKE followers of Jesus, as the apostle Paul explained in the verses above.

When I studied this, I thought about how much I do daily to prepare for a thief, and how little I do daily to prepare for the coming of Jesus.

“Mom brain” has completely affected my memory, so those who know me well, know that I assign memory cues to certain things that I need to stick in my brain.

My memory cue for this lesson, is that every time I lock a door, or prepare for a potential thief, I will think about preparing for the second coming of Jesus. For example, when I lock my door, I could pray for that person I love to come to know the saving love of Christ. Or, if I’m locking my car door somewhere, I will pray that God would allow me to see/show me, if there’s anyone there I need to share Him with.

How about you?
Have you prepared today/tonight for a thief?
Have you prepared for the second coming of Christ?
Are we ready?