All the time ready

     You know people who are perpetually late to everything.  They will be late to their own funeral!  I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum.  I'm perpetually early.  Usually 10-15 minutes at least.  In this day and age where lateness is the norm, my being early is not well accepted.  We all fit into one of the two categories.  Sometimes God's will causes us to be early or late so that his will can be brought into being.  Do you remember a time when you were diverted and averted a disaster just down the road?  Maybe you arrived early just in time to help out or even save someone's life.  It's happened to more than you think!  In God's plan we are never early or late if we are living life for Him.  In God's plan we are to be fluid in life adjusting to whatever is ahead of us even if we don't know what is coming our way.  Being all the time ready is a state of living for God rather than planning out your life.  I'm not always good at this so you know we are all in the same bucket.
     What does it take to be all the time ready?  Paul says a few things about this.  He had quite the remarkable life!  One of those saying goes like this:  "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me." and "I die daily that Christ may live in me."  There are many other sayings we could entertain like, "being instant in and out of season."  Just what guides our lives.  If we are living by the world's standard, we are living defensively and if we are living for God's standard we are living offensively.  In sports there needs to be an offense that can move forward.  It's no different in all areas of our lives.  What we see on the playing field of life is this dramatic attempt on the part of the world to keep the Christian on defense so that they are no longer effective nor are they an asset to the will of God.  So, how do we go about life as a Christian?
     Living on the offensive means we surrender our agenda for God's so that we are all the time ready to give account of the hope and life of Christ in us.  Losing track of this focus means we've fallen into a defensive mode.  Staying on the offensive requires us to pray, read the word, and pray some more.  It means having a Christ consciousness and not a world consciousness.  Being inactive is a gimmick of the enemy to give us an excuse to not do the will of God.  Inactivity is a choice to do nothing.  Jesus says that he wants us to be all in and all the time ready.  Revelations says that the lukewarm Christian is not a Christian at all.  Passive Christianity is not Christianity at all.  Being all the time ready is a focus Christ had for you and I with his birth, life, death and resurrection.  He was and is all the time ready.  Are you?  It's always your choice.