Preparation

In sports, preparation wins games.  I think that was witnessed this past weekend.  The New York Jets defeated the New England Patriots, much to the chagrin of all of New England.  I think the Pats were the better team.  They had the better coach, the better offense, the better if not the best quarterback, but they still lost the game.  The Jets are not a pushover team or a surprise team.  They were in the AFC championship last year and played well during the regular season.  But the Patriots demolished them 45-3 in week 13 of the regular season.  The Patriots were better, but for last Sunday's game the Jets had proper preparation.  Rex Ryan designed the right defensive game plan to defeat the Patriots.  His team prepared for that plan then they carried it out.  Their preparation won them the game.  Without that scheme and plan, I don't think the Jets would have won.  Preparation wins games.  I think that idea is true not just for sports.  Preparation is important for our spiritual lives.  E. M. Bounds wrote "preaching is not the performance of an hour.  It is the outflow of a life.  It takes twenty years to make a sermon, because it takes twenty years to make the man." And, "the real sermon is made in the closet. The man-God's man-is made in the closet." Bounds is essentially saying that preparation is necessary for our spiritual lives.  Writing about preachers, Bounds calls them to be men of prayer.  Prayer is the place of preparation.  Bounds writes that "much time alone with God is the secret of knowing him and of influence with him." If we are to be real people who live on mission for Christ, we must spend time in preparation.  Time in prayer knowing God, pleading with God, cherishing God. Too often I seek to do mission without proper preparation. 

How much time do you spend preparing?

May we be people of preparation as we seek to live on mission!