Prepare Yourselves!!

Come. What an inviting word! I love that Jesus bids us come.

"Yet you did not return to me" are words repeated five times in Amos 4. There is a sense of longing disappointment in the voice of the LORD in these words.

"Prepare to meet your God, O Israel!" Amos 4:12b.

Can you imagine the terror those words would bring to the people of Israel? God has just declared the faithlessness of the Israelites and how, no matter how God called them back to Himself, they refused to be humbled and seek Him. "Seek Me and live" are seen twice in the next chapter, words that promise life. But these words bring destruction. I imagine a booming thunderous voice when I read verse 12.

So many times when I read this verse I think of the fear and dread that the Israelites must have experienced, but often forget about those living today that are waiting that same end. God has faithfully pursued His children, but they have repeatedly rejected Him. Here in Uganda, in Brazil, in America: everywhere. That same destruction is promised to those who refuse the gift of salvation. Prepare to meet your God!

And yet these words also bring comfort and joy to the believer. They were declared to an unfaithful nation and pronounced death, but to the one who believes on the Lord for His grace and life, it is a statement that I find joy in. I do not have to do anything to prepare to meet my God, because Jesus did it for me. I don't have to clean my act up, rid myself of sin, and present myself as a perfect offering, because Jesus already was. As I trust in Him for my right standing with God, I'm perfect and ready to meet my God. What joy that meeting will bring!!

But for those who have no hope, this statement brings tears to my eyes. God does not delight in bringing destruction and death, for it is His will that all men be saved (1 Tim 2:4). But the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23a).

This is not to scare you into heaven, or bring fear in order to motivate the believer to witness to those around them. This is an honest view of what it means to meet the Lord. I'm not moved to share the Word of God with my friends because I'm fearful of them going to hell, but I love them enough to want them in heaven with Jesus, with me.