A Painful Lesson On Preparation

Mar 4, 2022

Happy Friday, you made it through another week! Praise God!

3, 2, 1… the basketball goes in. We are about to win our third game straight. So, I am excited, and right when I turn around to play defense - POP! I heard a pop noise in my calf.

Now, you have to understand that I play pick-up ball at a local community center with a bunch of 40-50-year-old men every week. It's a way to get to know the community and meet people. Also, I just needed to get back into shape. It took me a few months, but I finally felt terrific.

However, before I started to play that day, I didn't prepare my body. I didn't warm up. I didn't jog to get my legs going. I just stretched a bit and started playing.

So the next day, when I saw a doctor, he said, "You got a partial tear on your calf."

"Noooooo… How long until I can play again?" (I sounded like a little kid)

"Probably 4-6 weeks."

"Noooooo!" (I sounded like a little baby)

I learned that day the painful lesson on preparation, because preparation matters.

As we look into the start of Jesus' ministry, He took His preparation very seriously. Jesus, being fully God and fully man, could have just walked into ministry - but to God, preparation matters.

So before Jesus did anything, He had to grow up, be baptized, and be tempted. He had to live in obedience.

Matthew 3:13 says:

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.

Matthew 4:1:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Then, only after all this preparation of obedience, Matthew 4:17 says:

From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

And in Matthew 4:19, this is when He began calling his disciples to “come and follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people” ("Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will send you out to fish for people.").

What convicts me in all of this is how Jesus required so much preparation before He preached and invited others to follow Him. And I think it is because to call people to repentance and to follow Jesus requires spiritual power. And spiritual power is gained through obedience. Jesus obeyed His Heavenly Father's preparation, so when it came time to preach repentance, people repented. And when it came time to say, “Come, follow me,” people followed.

This humbles me because I often desire the results of ministry but not put in the work of daily obedience that leads to ministry.

I recently heard one pastor say, “You can't Instagram integrity and you can't Facebook faithfulness.” Isn't that good? “You can't Instagram integrity, and you can't Facebook faithfulness” (Michael Todd).

What this means is that others may not see our daily preparation of obedience to God, but it is necessary to do God's work of ministry for His glory.

This is why I hope you have a daily rhythm of being with Jesus in His word and prayer. Even if it is five minutes a day, prepare your soul and let the Holy Spirit saturate your mind and heart because God wants to use you for His mission today!

It's been about 4-5 weeks since my injury, and God willing, I will slowly get back to running and getting back in the gym to play ball with 40-50 year old men slowly. It's been a slow process, but I am thankful for God's lesson about preparation.

What is one small act of obedience you can take a baby step on today?

Ask Jesus to give you the strength to obey. Jesus is not only our model of how to do it, but He is our empowerment. He was able to prepare in obedience, so when we ask Him, He will help us.