“Watch the times and seasons and see how they are straining to fall in line with My Word. See how everything is lining up with what I have said would come to pass. Everything is in order. What should that tell you about your life? How should you be acting? You should be focusing on preparing your heart to see Me. You should be preparing as a bride. You should have oil in your lamp. Now is not the time to have a wandering heart. Now is the time to cleanse your garments. Become watchful. Set aside everything that distracts. Pay attention to My Word and My heart. Regain proper priorities.”
Matt. 25:6-13 NIV
6) “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
7) “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.
8) The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
9) “ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for us and you. Instead, go to those who sell and buy some for yourselves.’
10) “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11) “Later the others also came. ‘Sir! Sir! they said. ‘Open the door for us!’
12) “But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.’
13) “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
Luke 17:26-30 AMP
26) And [just] as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the time of the Son of Man.
27) [People] ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, right up to the day when Noah went into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.
28) So also [it was the same] as it was in the days of Lot. [People] ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built;
29) But on the [very] day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed [them] all.
30) That is the way it will be on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.
2 Pet. 3:9-12a NIV
9) “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
10) But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
11) Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives
12a) as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.”
If something is said often enough by enough people, it becomes truth in the heart of the hearers. If that same something takes the form of a warning, and the fulfillment is long in coming, people stop hearing the urgency of the message because they have heard it so often. That is the danger that I believe is occurring today. We, as believers, have been told to prepare, look at the times and seasons, watch what is happening to Israel, Jesus is coming soon. We have been told it so often, that we almost ignore the continued warnings. We overlook God’s longsuffering and patience, and become weary in waiting. That is a grave mistake, which has an eternal impact.
Keep me focused, Lord,
Jim Corbett