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 16:15
New English Translation
Throughout Revelation 16 we read about disaster after disaster occurring. Despite the wrath of God, people continue to not only serve the beast, but to blaspheme God. Then, amongst all the blatant rejection of repentance, we get the urging of verse 15: be alert, be ready for Christ to return.
I think it’s amazing that even though the chapter shows that so many people will refuse to listen to God and the rebellion will be so great, God still offers the reminder within that chapter to be ready. Rather than just shrugging His shoulders and saying, “well, you know, I tried” and then letting the destruction listed be the end of it, He yet again gives us every opportunity to realize that He has left the decision up to us: follow Him or fall into destruction.
When it comes to making life decisions, I think it can be hard for us to remember that every moment matters. There’s nothing disconnected from our spiritual well being, nothing that doesn’t play into whether we’re being alert or rebellious. Often, we can get caught in this false assumption that some areas are free to do whatever we please and others need to be cleaned up because those are the areas God is involved in. However, God’s involved in everything, so are we really alert if we’re trying to categorize pieces of our lives?
Something important to always remember is that our actions reflect whether we are alert or not. How do you treat others? What are you talking about? Are your thoughts reflecting God’s goodness or selfishness and unholy desires? If you’re ever wondering whether you’re prepared for Christ to return, just start comparing your behavior to Scripture. If you can’t say that you’re seeing yourself actively growing and moving toward what God has told us to be in Scripture, then I’d say you’re not prepared at all.
God isn’t looking for lip service Christians. He’s looking for people so sold out for Him that they’re willing to let Him touch every area of their lives. He wants people who are willing to obey even when it’s hard and He asks them to give up things that they really would rather hold onto. If we’re not willing to move past talking about Jesus to living for Jesus, then we’re in no better place than the people in Revelation 16 who actively rebelled against God and then blasphemed Him during the destruction. The only difference is that they acknowledged that they weren’t following God rather than pretending that they were.
Here’s my challenge to you: Take time today and ask God to reveal whether you’re alert and ready for Christ’s return or you’ve just been talking a good game. Open your heart to receive whatever He says. Don’t be too proud to listen when He starts offering correction. It’s not necessarily going to be true for everyone that God’s going to say your entire life needs a 180 turn. For some of us, there are just some smaller areas that we’ve been ignoring that we need Him to touch. Whatever He asks of you, are you willing to let Him help you change in those areas and be alert?