Are You Ready?

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He tried to muster a confident smile but his halfhearted attempt fooled no one. “Relax. I’m sure you’ll do fine,” the receptionist said as she tried to reassure him. It felt like hours but only a few minutes had passed since he last glanced at his watch. To pass the time away he began to go over potential questions they might ask, but her voice broke his concentration, “Sir, sir, they’re ready for you now.” The answer to so many of his prayers was on the other side of that door but is he ready?


It’s a question we all should be asking ourselves. We pray and pray for God to change our lives and you better believe he will. Our Lord is in the blessings business: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (‭‭Matt ‭7‬:‭7‬-‭8‬). God can bless you so abundantly that it can be overwhelming and if you’re not ready, you’ll stumble. You don’t have to look very far for the latest headline about a broke athlete or musician. They get blessed with millions of dollars but squandered it on a lavish lifestyle centered on fulfilling their every indulgence. 


They were blessed financially but weren’t spiritually prepared to handle it. The thing about blessings is that they can be a two-edge sword. You have the obvious  blessing of having more money but money and power often amplifies our sinful nature. It’s been said the only thing worse than our desires is having the ability to pay for them. Lusting after women is one thing but when you can spend thousands in a strip club or pay for prostitutes you’ve got a real problem. Look at the number of celebrities, CEO’s and politicians who lost their careers over sex. They used their power to take advantage of people or got caught up in affairs. 


Now before we get all judgmental on those “sinful” rich folk, we need to take a serious look at ourselves. We may not have millions but we have the same sin problems. The new raise at the job can lead someone to buying more drugs because now than can afford their fix. Maybe the new promotion has got you feeling yourself so your arrogance is harder to control. Perhaps you finally got the spouse you’ve been praying for but they don’t live like a Christian and eventually no longer do you. It can be something as simple as being blessed to take a vacation that leads us to drinking or partying more. 


We get so easily pulled away from God when we become successful. Sometimes your biggest blessing is a hard “no” to your prayers. Not getting something you prayed for doesn’t mean God won’t provide or he  doesn’t hear you. Often our prayers go unanswered because God knows our hearts. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (‭‭James‬ ‭4‬:‭3‬). So the next time you feel like it’s taking too long to achieve a goal it could be because we aren’t spiritually mature enough to handle it. We aren’t ready. 


Think about it. 

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