Are you a prepper?

The dictionary defines a prepper as, “a person who believes a catastrophic disaster or emergency is likely to occur in the future and makes active preparations for it, typically by stockpiling food, ammunition, and other supplies. "there's no agreement among preppers about what disaster is most imminent”.”

So, basically, preppers are preparing for something that might happen in ways that might help.  But what about something that is a sure thing?  Do we prepare for that?  Unfortunately, most do not.  Jesus coming again to judge the world is a SURE THING.  It will DEFINITELY happen.  And repenting and believing in Jesus is the only thing that will save us.  And not believing something will happen doesn’t make it not happen.

We need to prepare for the sure thing and not be anxious about tomorrow (Matthew 6:25-34).  Sure, some common sense preparedness is a good idea.  Look at COVID.  Everything shut down, so we needed to have some food and supplies on hand.  But do we prepare for eternity with the same care that we prepare for our future on earth?  

So, if we have already repented and believe in Jesus, depending on Him for salvation, how can we prepare?

1. We need to be urgently sharing the gospel and praying for our unsaved family and friends.  This is a big deal.  If we don’t share the gospel, can we really say that we believe it?
2. We need to store up food - Jesus said in John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.”  Since we are being conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), that means our food should be doing the Lord’s will as well.  We should be stockpiling “good works,” not because they save us, but because that is what He wants us to be doing (Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 1:10; Titus 2:14; 3:1,8,14; 1 Peter 2:12).  We know that “man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh” (Deuteronomy 8:3 and Matthew 4:4).  This means we need to be listening to Him by reading and studying His Word.  Which leads us to the next step . . .
3. We need to store up weapons and ammunition - in Ephesians 6, the only offensive weapon we are given is the sword of the Spirit, which we are told is the Word of God.  We need to be studying, memorizing, reading, and learning God’s Word.  We need to be praying over it, with it, and through it.  As the Spirit leads us in prayer and Bible study, we come to know God more and more and He sanctifies us more and more.  So we need to be stockpiling our prayer and Scripture study.
4. We need to store up supplies - like soap.  1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Just like we buy soap to prepare for cleaning our physical body, we need to be repenting to clean our souls.  As the context of this verse reminds us, we are all sinners and we continue to sin even after salvation.  In order to be clean and continue in unburdened fellowship with the Lord, we must repent.  Weekly? yes.  Daily? yes.  Hourly?  yes.  Minute by minute?  I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel like I am struggling with sin second by second, so yes, I need to repent that often.  We need to be stockpiling repentance. 

So let’s prepare for the sure thing by witnessing, prayer, Bible study, and repentance.  I’m sure there are other ways we need to be preparing, but those seem like the top four.  Remember, these things don’t save us.  We are saved by grace through faith, all a work of God.  These things do help us to live each day with the eternal perspective of looking for the sure thing.  He is coming.  “Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).