Week 26- #Prepare “Equip”

"What Needs To Be Made Ready?"

Hebrews 13:21 "Equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."

Ephesians 6:11 "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil."

Hebrews 10:24-25 "And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

I don’t know about you but I cannot believe that we have already reached the halfway point of 2021!

Today marks week #26 in our “pathway to preparation.”

So I am thinking this is a good time to take a "time out," and pause to consider two very important questions as we continue on this journey.

Question one: Are you better equipped today than you were yesterday?

Question two: Who are you equipping along the way?

One definition for “equip” is "to furnish for service or action by appropriate provisioning and to make ready!"

In spite of this pandemic, many have utilized this time to practice habits they otherwise would not have initiated, which have positively affected their physical, mental, and spiritual well being.

A personal challenge to myself, and one I asked others early on during the pandemic, “was to be better today…than we were before.”

Paul offers this religious appeal in Hebrews 13:21 to “Equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.”

It’s hard to imagine actually coming out of a struggle like a pandemic better than before!

Some may ask, ”how can it even be possible?"

It can only be possible by our intentionality to "prepare to equip!”

To provide the appropriate provisions for our own growth, and to make ready enabling us to do God’s will.

In this way, I again ask, "are you better equipped today than you were yesterday?"

And in this same light let’s consider question two, “who are you equipping along the way?”

In Hebrews 10:24-25 the Jewish Christians are exhorted to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

You see my brothers, it is not enough to come out of this pandemic (or any of life’s opportunities for that matter) preparing to equip if we do it all in solitude.

Although, it is true that we must take care of ourselves, and fill our own wheelbarrows first (or we have nothing to give others) we must not deny our call for “equipping" others along the way.

DADs, what provisions do you need to appropriately provide? What do you need to “make ready?”

It’s time to prepare to equip.

First, ourselves, then anyone who will listen!

To God be the glory!

DADs, “get in the game”…Today is game day…and so is every day…God gives you! So…C’mon Men Suit Up!

**Today we prepare to “Equip.” Next week we will consider how critical it is to prepare to “Learn."

Note:*For this new year of 2021, the combination of my age (understanding my own fragile mortality), this current and ongoing global pandemic, and most recently the personal loss I’ve experienced of one of my students, has amplified the need to land on one word...#Prepare.

In this "pursuit to prepare" I am determined to dedicate the 52 weeks of 2021 blogging every Week about one aspect of preparation God lays on my heart.

As mentioned in week 1, the word “prepare” means “to establish, fix, or apply.” It conveys the idea of deliberate effort over a prolonged period of time.