Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 4: The Bible: God’s Inspired Word!”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
“When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare” – John Wooden.
John Wooden was one of the most successful NCAA Division 1 basketball coaches the sport has ever seen. He worked not just to win games, but to develop young men in their personhood. He was relentless in his practices, emphasizing the basics of basketball, all the while developing the character of his players.
Coach Wooden knew a 60 second time-out was not enough time to teach, practice and implement a new play or strategy to take advantage of an opportunity in the game. He knew that it was the daily, dedicated practices that honed his players into individuals that could adjust, adapt and take advantage of a game situation and work it for their benefit.
Preparation must be done before the opportunity comes…thorough preparation.
Are you prepared?
“For what?” people in church asked when I posed that question yesterday.
Good point. If we don’t know for what we are preparing, we will not know how to prepare.
So, for what are we preparing?
As Christians, God told us last week in Ephesians 2:8-10:
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
God, by his grace, brought you into his family to do the good works he has prepared in advance for us to do.
Do I know what opportunities he’s going to give you today? Do I know what opportunities he’s going to give me today?
I don’t.
But I know he wants me to be prepared for every good work opportunity he puts before me.
Will it be a person in distress that needs someone to listen? Is it a child that will challenge me as a parent? Is it a spouse that will need extra love? Is it a job that challenges my patience?
This is just a short list of possibilities.
So how will we be prepared?
God helps us with that. Our key passage this week is 2 Timothy 3:16-17: 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So how will we be prepared, i.e. “thoroughly equipped”?
By connecting daily with the God-breathed words of Scripture. Through them God will prepare us…for every good work.
So when opportunity comes, we will be prepared!
Apply: How prepared do you feel for your day/life of good works? What small commitment will you make to start a “training” program today?
Prayer: Lord thank you for putting me on your team by grace shown to me in Jesus. Spirit of God, equip me through the words of Scripture you inspired to be thoroughly equipped for a life of following Jesus…starting today! AMEN.