Preparation: Physically, Mentally, & Spiritually
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.’ (1 Peter 1:13); ’But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.’ (1 Corinthians 14:40)
How can we get Spiritually prepared, ‘prepper-wise’? For preparing in any situation, we examine our needs, determine our shortcomings or gaps, and then go about filling in those gaps. Some shortcomings we can fill right away; if you need a couple cans of food or a case of water you can go to Walmart or Publix and get those within the hour. Some shortcomings will take time to fill. If you believe new windows are needed, that may take some time to determine the window replacements, get an estimate, order the windows, get a loan, or set up a payment plan, or save up to buy the replacement windows.
Mentally preparation is to think over the ‘Five W’s & One H’ (Who, What, When, Why, Where & How) of a scenario before the scenario comes to reality. I want to protect my wife and I, and if possible, others (Who) from hurricanes like Ian (What) and be ready within 24 hours of potential strike (When) so we can survive (Why) in our house (Where) by hunkering down and having the supplies to sustain us and the protection to keep us safe (How). This is a bit simplified but going through the mental exercise of ‘What If’ has served well, like having panels to run extension cords through the walls instead of keeping doors and windows open (and letting bugs and humidity in – yuck!) before a hurricane actually hits.
Spiritual preparation is similar to the mental preparation, but it is bolstered by the immersion into our Lord’s will through Prayer, Reading the Scriptures, and Fellowship. How would you respond, would you respond to others in Christian-like fashion in a crisis situation? Are you prepared to sacrifice for others a bit of personal comfort to help them? In 1 Peter 1:13, we need to stay on point with what the Lord has taught us; it does not go out the window or get superseded by events but instead becomes the instructions to follow for every event, and it should become an outline we follow in every situation, as stated in 1 Corinthians 14:40. This is especially true when the physical and mental preparations fail, as nothing of human hands is ‘fail-proof’; the Spiritual preparations must include the knowledge that the Spirit will not and cannot fail, only our use of the Spirit may fail due to our shortcomings in the preparation in using the Spirit.
Know that the Lord will never leave us or forsake us; He will not leave our side. Likewise, we cannot leave our Spirituality behind us when confronted with a crisis. We need to ensure we rely on Jesus and show the love of Christ to others even as things crumble all around us. Don’t allow your Faith to crumble as well!
