"Catch a wave and your settin' on top of the world!" - The Beach Boys
While reading My Utmost for His Highest the other morning, I read the following, "Be ready for the sudden surprise visits of God. A person ready never needs to get ready - he is ready." Oswald Chambers was discussing the need for readiness in the life of a follower of Jesus. So often we fail to see God move in our lives because we have not readied ourselves for His movement.
Moses had been readying himself for 40 years when God appeared to him in the burning bush. He had spent those years of exile on the backside of nowhere preparing for the role of the leader of God's people. Now granted, he did not realize what God was doing in his life, but none the less, he was readying himself. If Moses had not been ready, he would not have noticed the bush when he walked by.
Now the Bible does not mention this, but using my holy imagination, I wonder if Moses had passed by a burning bush before, but had had not noticed it because he wasn't ready. Maybe he had passed by many burning bushes but not until the day that he was ready did he actually notice, "Hey, that bush is on fire but it isn't burning up!" Then in that moment when Moses' readiness met God's presence history was made.
Now being ready does not insure that God will speak to us, but NOT being ready absolutely insures that God will NOT speak! It's like surfing. I've never surfed but I know that in order to surf you've got to be ready. They way you ready yourself is going to the beach, getting in the water, getting on your board and paddling out to where the waves come in. Now there will be days when you do all your prep and no waves come. But if you are going to catch a wave, you've got to be in the water, on your board and in position. If you wait until you see the wave before you start getting ready, it's too late. By the time you get in the water, get on your board and paddle out the wave is long gone.
I wonder how many waves of the Spirit the Father has sent our direction that we've missed because we've been preoccupied up on the beach when we should have been ready on our board out in the surf. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd really like to be riding waves instead of missing them. So let me encourage you to do whatever you need to do to be ready for the "surprise visits of God".
Surf's up Big Kahuna, grab your board!
Now the Bible does not mention this, but using my holy imagination, I wonder if Moses had passed by a burning bush before, but had had not noticed it because he wasn't ready. Maybe he had passed by many burning bushes but not until the day that he was ready did he actually notice, "Hey, that bush is on fire but it isn't burning up!" Then in that moment when Moses' readiness met God's presence history was made.
Now being ready does not insure that God will speak to us, but NOT being ready absolutely insures that God will NOT speak! It's like surfing. I've never surfed but I know that in order to surf you've got to be ready. They way you ready yourself is going to the beach, getting in the water, getting on your board and paddling out to where the waves come in. Now there will be days when you do all your prep and no waves come. But if you are going to catch a wave, you've got to be in the water, on your board and in position. If you wait until you see the wave before you start getting ready, it's too late. By the time you get in the water, get on your board and paddle out the wave is long gone.
I wonder how many waves of the Spirit the Father has sent our direction that we've missed because we've been preoccupied up on the beach when we should have been ready on our board out in the surf. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'd really like to be riding waves instead of missing them. So let me encourage you to do whatever you need to do to be ready for the "surprise visits of God".
Surf's up Big Kahuna, grab your board!
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