(Look! He is returning with the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him,
and all the tribes on the earth will mourn because of him.
This will certainly come to pass! Amen.) Revelation 1:7 NET

How do we prepare for the end times? While I have my doubts about the way some people are doing it, the Scriptures are pretty clear for anyone who will take the time to look…

Really?

Sometimes, I just shake my head…

I heard it (and you probably have too) how “Christian people” will stockpile food, medicine, toiletries, and the like in order to prepare for the end of days.

Oh, and guns. Let’s not forget the guns.

I actually heard of a “Pastor” who took someone and showed them the bunker he had built beneath his home (and this was long before the current pandemic hit). It was stocked to the hilt, guns and ammunition included. When asked what the guns were for the “Pastor” replied, “To defend what’s mine!”

Really?

Is that really how the King wants us to prepare for the days ahead. When we look at the Scriptures, a very different picture emerges.

Actual Instructions

Below are some actual instructions given to us in God’s Word that clearly shows us how we are to prepare for His coming. The instructions are quite clear so I’m not going to make a lot of comments on them. I will let the Scriptures speak for themselves.

³² “But as for that day or hour no one knows it—neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son—except the Father. ³³ Watch out! Stay alert! For you do not know when the time will come. ³⁴ It is like a man going on a journey. He left his house and put his slaves in charge, assigning to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to stay alert. ³⁵ Stay alert, then, because you do not know when the owner of the house will return—whether during evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or at dawn— ³⁶ or else he might find you asleep when he returns suddenly. ³⁷ What I say to you I say to everyone: Stay alert!” Mark 13:32 – 37 NET

This next one is one of my personal favorites. I believe it speaks very clearly to the day in which you and I live.

¹¹ And do this because we know the time, that it is already the hour for us to awake from sleep, for our salvation is now nearer than when we became believers. ¹² The night has advanced toward dawn; the day is near. So then we must lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the weapons of light. ¹³ Let us live decently as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in discord and jealousy. ¹⁴ Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to arouse its desires. Romans 13:11 – 14 NET

Read through the rest of these carefully…

⁴ But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the darkness for the day to overtake you like a thief would. ⁵ For you all are sons of the light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of the darkness. ⁶ So then we must not sleep as the rest, but must stay alert and sober. 1 Thessalonians 5:4 – 6 NET

For the culmination of all things is near. So be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of prayer. 1 Peter 4:7 NET

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief; when it comes, the heavens will disappear with a horrific noise, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze, and the earth and every deed done on it will be laid bare. ¹¹ Since all these things are to melt away in this manner, what sort of people must you be, conducting your lives in holiness and godliness, ¹² while waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God? Because of this day, the heavens will be burned up and dissolve, and the celestial bodies will melt away in a blaze! ¹³ But, according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness truly resides. 2 Peter 3:10 – 13 NET

¹ (See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called God’s children—and indeed we are! For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know him. ² Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is. ³ And everyone who has this hope focused on him purifies himself, just as Jesus is pure). 1 John3:1 – 3 NET

(Look ! I will come like a thief!
Blessed is the one who stays alert and does not lose his clothes so that he will not have to walk around naked and his shameful condition be seen.) Revelation 15:16 NET

It’s All Spiritual

Did you notice that there is not a single mention of guns, stockpiling, or bunkers? Everything mentioned in these verses, and others like them, is spiritual. We prepare by being prayed up and alert. We prepare by divesting ourselves of anything the King would find offensive. To put it plainly, preparing for the end times comes down to day-by-day living in the Reign.

M

Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996, 2019 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.