How importance is preparation in your life? I am a school teacher by day. Preparation for me includes lesson plans, curriculum reviews and feedback tests. I won’t say thaty it takes too much of my time but it takes one third of all my work realated hours to achieve that. Add to that my readings on child psychology, classroom strategies etc and you have just extended that time period by at least fifteen percent. In every field of work preparation is important. Jesus’s preparation had taken him to the wilderness where he spent forty days. The Isrealites in the times of Moses had to roam the wilderness for forty years because their heart wasn’t prepared to receive the promised land or because their hearts had already turned to Egyptian slavery.
Mat 4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Similarly in the life of a believer preparation is extremely important. Esther fasted and prayed for three days along with her entire community before she dared to venture into the presence of the King. How much preparation then do we need to face the King of kings and Lord of Lords? In truth God had prepared a preparation in Esther long before those three days. He had brought her up, and give her the appearanve the captivate the King. Her preparation probably started the moment Mordecai decided that Esther could enchant the King.
Est 4:16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”
What happens during this time of preparation? Well it is unclear what kind of a preparation one needs for God’s intended purpose. Where for Esther it was being groomed to be a successful queen, for Samson it was the Nazirite vow. Samson grew up to be all he was because of a different reason and for a different future.
Jdg 13:5 for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
At the end of it all we ust all remember that when Jesus was in preparation He thirsted and he hungered. He was tempted by the devil and he persisted. Are we strong enough to persist when all my promises have been taken from me.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
(Mat 4:1-2)