“We need to tidy the house because Grandma is coming to visit.”

Growing up, I could never understand why there was this sudden rush anytime Grandma was coming to visit. Granted my mum was a single parent of four children so our house never looked like a show room but my room was always tidy and there wasn’t much for me to do in preparation. When I left home at 17 years old, I wanted to be sure my house was clean and tidy should anyone choose to visit, and this is something I still live by.

What type of person are you? House always tidy and ready for visitors or need to do a quick whip round if someone was coming to visit? Let me know in the comments.

As Christians, we need to be ready to welcome THE most important visitor, Jesus! In the Bible it talks about being ready for his return, even though we don’t know when that will be, we need to prepare now.

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Matthew 24:42-43

The YouVersion devotional I was studying recently was about God’s Holiness and what that meant for us. One of the questions said, “What would change in your life if you were to find yourself encountering the divine throne room of his holy presence?”

As Christians, not only are we preparing for Christ’s return, we should be seeking to be in God’s presence daily and living in a way that recognises His presence.

If you were invited to visit the King in Buckingham Palace I am sure you would pick out your best clothes, you would be excited, possibly nervous and on the day I bet you would be on your absolute best behaviour. Well to me, that’s what it’s like being in the presence of God every day. We should be ready for him at any moment not just cleaning ourselves up for church on a Sunday, or for that special occasion or even waiting for the day he returns.

There are other verses in the Bible that speak to us about being ready and prepared for the return of Christ Mark 13: 33-37, Luke 12: 35-38, Luke 12: 40, Philippians 3: 20, 1Thessalonians 5: 6 and many more!

How can we prepare? We need to look at our daily spiritual practices, at how we are ushering in God’s presence into our lives.

Spending time with him daily is important and I know in our busy lives it can be hard to find that time, and even think we don’t have the time but in actual fact we can’t afford to not have the time. If morning’s work better for you, then choose a time you can stick to daily. If you are a night owl, a time in the evening may be better. At the start of the year I set myself a goal to wake up at 7.30am every day and take that tme to seek God, and I am so glad I did because it’s helped me ensure I have that time with Him everyday.

During this time with God, I am praying and reading scripture. We need to be doing both so we can get to know God better, we can understand His plan for our lives and we can receive direction and correction from Him. Prayer in it’s simplest form is talking to God. You can do this out loud, or silently. Prayer does not need to be kept to set times in the day, it can be an ongoing dialogue with God throughout the day. I would also encourage you to allow time to hear from God, because He wants to speak too.

Have you heard of ACTS as a way to help you pray? It can helpful to ensure our prayer time doesn’t become a shopping isn’t but it takes the time to revere God’s holiness and show gratitude.

• A is for Adoration, a time to praise God for who He is.
• C is for Confession, a time to confess and repent, to allow God to search our heart.
• T is for Thanksgiving, a time to thank God for all He has done for you.
• S is for Supplication, a time to bring your requests to God.

Other spiritual practices include taking communion (bread representing Jesus’s body and wine, or juice for us non drinkers, representing Jesus’s blood), taking a Sabbath, praise and worship, and fasting.

I hope and pray that understanding Christ’s return is imminent and changes the way you live daily. It should urge you to seek His presence daily and live in a way that reflects His holiness. Don’t be like the virgins described in Matthew 25: 1-13 who were unprepared for their bridegroom’s return by having no oil in their lamps and completely missed his return as they rushed out to buy more!

We know Christ is coming back but we don’t know when, this should motivate us to live ready every day! Not rushing around preparing, cleaning and getting ready when the day or time is upon us. Until then we should be living in a way that recognises God’s presence in our lives at all times.

If you were to reflect on your own readiness, are you ready? What daily spiritual practices would you say are important to you?

Amber x