January 7: Philippians 1 19-21

Key Verse: Philippians 1 20
I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

Devotion:
When was the last time you were 'ready for anything'? When was the last time you were 'willing to go for it'? As Christians, we should be in a constant state of readiness, we should be on 'red alert' all the time.

You may turn round and say nobody would be in such a state of readiness all the time, that they would look like fools... You may say only fools stack up so much water in their houses just waiting for civil war to break out... You may say only fools live in constant fear of an aeroplane dropping out of the sky onto their house... It could happen... it probably will not... but it could...

I am not talking about such physical things, but rather the things of the spirit. We know what is going to happen. We know The Lord will return. We know Christ has already been once. We know God created the heavens and the earth. We know these things, so we should be ready for them.

What we do not know is the time and place. We do not know when the Lord is going to take us home. We do not know what is going to happen before that – we only know things are getting worse and we can see that happening. We need to be ready for the Lord's return. We need to be ready to take His word out to others today, not tomorrow, not when it suits us, but here and now. We need to be ready for that happening, here and now.

There is nothing to be ashamed of, because we know it is going to happen. It is not a case of IF, but rather WHEN. The hermit who refuses to leave his house in case a car runs over him is worried about the IF part of his life. The Christian who walks out the door knowing they will soon be with God is working on the WHEN.

Points to Ponder:
What would you do if a car crashed into your house right now?

Are you ready for His return?