OUR LORD WHO PREPARES

By definition, to prepare means to make advance arrangements for an upcoming event or circumstance. It also can mean the training or conditioning of a person for an approaching station in life. An example of this usage is, "College prepares you for life in the work place".

Preparation is a function of foresight and the desire for a particular  result in the future.

In the scriptures, our Lord is shown to make preparations and  one of the most famous instances of this is found in John 14 verse 2 - 3 where Jesus says:

 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

Here, our Lord, with foresight and desiring to have His people be where He is, went to prepare dwellings for us.

Another place where God is shown as a one who prepares is in Psalms 23 verse 4 - 5.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.

Here, the Lord is described as preparing a table before us in the presence of our enemies. The preparation the Lord does is to put in place the accoutrements of provision and support in the midst of those who are hostile to us so that when we arrive in that place, we find our advantage already built into the fabric of existence even though we are embedded in enemy territory. 

When we are moving along the path the Lord sets for us, we find that the preparations of the Lord result in our cups running over.

In this instance, God prepares a table of provision before us and blessing for us but in this next case, our Lord prepares the work that we were born to do in His kingdom.

Ephesians 2 verse 10 says this:

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

This scripture says that God deliberately and individually made us to do specific good works which He prepared ahead of time so that it was in place for us, with our individual specifications, to do.

This would be like an engineer crafting a beautiful and powerful car and then placing it on a custom-built speedway that he had prepared in advance that could properly showcase the power and engineering that was designed into the car.

Bless our wonderful and awesome Lord.

Amen.